The Truth About Republican Racism and the “Southern Strategy”

Whenever the topic of racism gets brought up between Democrats and Republicans, there are two facts you’ll almost always hear conservatives use to counter the belief that their party is full of racism:

President Abraham Lincoln was a Republican

The KKK was largely organized, and populated by, Democrats

And both are facts.

But when someone uses these two items as their defense that the Republican party isn’t loaded with racism, they’re only showing their ignorance about the reality of racism within their party.

It’s true, Southern Democrats were extremely racist. At the same time, Northern “liberal” Democrats and Republicans had already been working together to end discrimination and pushed for ending segregation.

See, in 1948, President Harry Truman made one of the boldest public moves by a Democrat towards Civil Rights for African Americans by creating the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, and ending discrimination in the military. At the Democratic National Convention in 1948 a call was made for civil rights—prompting at least 35 Southern delegates to walk out.

These movements towards civil rights for African Americans spurred a short-lived political party — the States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the “Dixiecrats.” The people who comprised this movement adamantly defended segregation of the races. It was an attempt to keep the “tyrannical Northern liberals” from “destroying the freedom of states’ rights in the South.”

Luckily, this political party only lasted one election. But what this movement really did was recognize the shift of Democrats embracing equality for African Americans and Southern whites strongly opposing any mention of civil rights.

The moves by President Truman sparked the spread of equality in the South and left Southern white Democrats with a feeling that their party was abandoning their racist — and oppressive — system of beliefs.

Over the next decade, more and more Democrats began to embrace equality, passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And while more African Americans began to vote for Democrats, in the late-1960’s a new Republican strategy was put into place—the “Southern strategy.”

This was a plan was that was first popularized by Richard Nixon.

What the “Southern strategy” essentially does is it identified the fact that African Americans were voting for Democrats, therefore Republicans decided they would make white voters more aware of this fact in hopes of driving the “white vote” towards the Republican party.

Doubt me? Let’s look at a comment from a 1970’s interview in the New York Times with Richard Nixon’s political strategist:

“From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that…but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.”

Essentially it was the Republican party saying, “Look, blacks are voting for Democrats so you white people need to vote for Republicans—the party that will represent whites and oppose the blacks.”

With this strategy, you saw the official shift of the Republican party from the “party of Lincoln” to the party which embraced white racism towards African Americans to solidify the white vote in the South.

So, yeah, it’s easy to say Lincoln was a Republican and the KKK was largely built by Democrats, but by doing so you only prove your own ignorance of history. You’re ignoring the fact that as Democrats evolved to embrace equality for African Americans, Southern racists were left looking for a new political party — and they found one that not only embraced their racism and bigotry, it sought it out.

Allen Clifton is a native Texan who now lives in the Austin area. He has a degree in Political Science from Sam Houston State University. Allen is a co-founder of Forward Progressives and creator of the popular Right Off A Cliff column and Facebook page. Be sure to follow Allen on both Twitter and Facebook. Have feedback, inquiries, criticism or compliments? You can email him as well.

Comments

The real issue is one of class, not race. The rich want the poor to keep fighting amongst themselves over meaningless things, like racial differences.

Michael Hurwitz

“Meaningless things like racial differences.” Have to be a biggot to think like that…How is racial equality meaningless? Please explain…

Black Flag

You really must be a little dim to take the previous poster wrongly. In a fair and just world, colour, gender, orientation won’t make any difference, so will be meaningless. Wealthyelite is clearly an idealist, not a bigot.

DownriverDem

Sure, but the current repubs are all about hate and you know it.

Justin Peters

Some are, but this mass classification into sides is foolish IMO. They are ignorant of the realities of the world and they are irrational and indoctrinated to believe stupid things, almost always by religion. If you want to be part of the solution don’t stereotype all Republicans into a single mindset. It’s simply not true that they are all about hate, in fact many of them probably believe with everything they are that they are doing what is right and just. Doesn’t make them right, but it does mean they are not to be “blamed” for being them, though they still must be fought.

balance

Anyone who can associate themselves with the Republican platform can damn well expect to take heat for their choice of political party and its actions.

DerSchweizer

We can be equal and at the same time different, no?

Kaiyla Bradford

What makes us different makes us special. It would be a very boring place if we were all the same.

So your saying that in addition to having some people who believe in equal rights we should also have some racist KKK nut jobs just so it is less boring.?

ziggywiggy

I would guess she is saying the world would be boring if we all looked the same

Chuck Reed

Yes, of course anything can be different but yet equal

balance

Equality in consideration of interests is a moral idea, and isn’t meant to be descriptive, but prescriptive. Every being doesn’t have the exact same interests or qualities, but their interests should be considered equally with everyone else’s.

lessthantolerant

I agree, my black girls earn me just as much cash as my Hispanic girls so who cares about color?

Fully472

Racial DIFFERENCES are meaningless. Except in the minds of the persons who use them as excuses for their hating someone, you see? But in the reality of the fact we are all human of the same race, some of us who look one way CHOOSE to PRETEND their superiority for personal gain over those who look another way. Ignoring the medical fact that those appearent differences are only reactions to evolution under different circumstances, weather, nearness to the poles, how much sun our local social habits or weather conditions allow us to be exposed to and eating habits of our respective regions. We have only stopped looking the same because of a hundred generations of separate social factors affecting us, understand? That’s not to say equality is meaningless but to say peoples’ impressions of human differences are meaningless and untrue.

Justin Peters

Everyone is racist on the basis of skin color. It’s not a choice it’s a fact and if you went through the trouble of looking into tests done about this you would know this. Not saying racism is good, or right, but it’s a fact that practically every person, no matter how “non racist” they are, when tested tests as being at least somewhat racist against other races than theirs. This is important to Know, not to Deny, because it allows you to fight a natural bias that your brain has, to realize that bias is unjustified, and to counter it.

Pixie Stix

He did not say “racial equality.” He said racial differences. A few changes in chromosome really is pretty dang minor in the scheme of things.

DownriverDem

No race is still part of it. They hate President Obama becaus he is black. Can’t wait for the old racist white mostly male repubs to die out. I am white and find them all disgusting.

Sandie Abel

I wish the problem was simply Old White Racists. Unfortunately, there’s a rising generation of Neo-Bigots 🙁

Mentory

Truth! I am black and as I hang with real white people who tell me of the true racism in their community, I notice the equally racist rise in my community. The media is behind it, but there is always someone behind that. Even blacks who live around whites began to hate blacks and subsequently themselves.

Eustace Cromartie

Blaming the media s a foolish excuse. The media gives people what they want. That is why Fox and other organizations can be overtly racist and capitalize. The lack of education is to blame and the tradition of racism it also to blame.

Lois Payette

Amen to that! Lack of Education IS the REAL problem and the Republicans are making it harder by privatizing our schools and blocking the unions. Every off the wall idea for education is another page in dumbing down our children and their future! Take a look at what is happening in Michigan if you doubt it.

Jonathan Evan Stern

Total agreement Miz Payette!

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

wrong Jonathan Evan Stern… Democrats are the one’s opposing ‘school choice’ ‘ which is the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Jonathan Evan Stern

In what way is seeking to improve public school instead of giving more money to already bloated private schools (many of which shouldn’t be funded because they have a religious affiliation) lowering expectations?

Jackie Morrison

typical liberal reaction, throw more money at the problem and maybe it will go away. the government has been doing that for the last 50 years and the problem has not gone away so apparently it is not a money problem and is most likely a people problem.
a local teachers union was on strike several years ago while I was home on leave and the head of the union actually got on television and told the reporter “if you pay us more money we will be better teachers”, it is having people who think like that teaching our kids that cause a lot of the problems in the education system today

madame48

If you are really interested, there is a recent article from Finland comparing this issue. Finland is number 1 in education outcomes. When the students in poverty are removed from the comparison, US jumps almost to parity. Finland has 100% unionized teachers. They have 20% the poverty rate we do. To become a teacher there one must get into a very competitive university program, then they have a rigorous course system both in subject matter and education. The teaching profession has the status and pay Level similar to a doctor or lawyer….high status and respect. The society values education and the role of teachers in that experience whereas here, it is the opposite. I am old and have seen that, especially in the last 30+ years , teaching profession and education are constantly trashed. Kids see that trashing and it affects their respect for education and teachers. The article slammed the current efforts to further de professionalize teaching as just the opposite of what needs to be done. So, the teachers here are supposed, in 5 or 6 hours, to mitigate the crushing problems kids have from living in poverty. It is easier to blame them, even though they try even in the toughest areas. So he finished by commenting in a speculation on how the ” greatly successful” Finnish teachers would do in an American school. They did pretty much the same as American teachers. And just like 50% of AMERICAN teachers here, 50% of the Finnish teachers

TerryInIowa

Actually, if you pay more, you get better quality employees. So, yes, if you pay your teachers more, you will have better teachers. The government has been reducing the money spent on education (as well as most other programs) for the last 40 years, so your argument that “throwing money at the problem for the last 50 years hasn’t helped” (paraphrased) is based on a lie.

Jackie Morrison

WHILE ON LEAVE FROM THE ARMY BACK IN THE EARLY 80’s THE TEACHERS IN A NEAR BY CITY WENT ON STRIKE AND THE UNION PRESIDENT HAD THE GALL TELL A REPORTER IN AN INTERVIEW, “IF YOU PAY US MORE MONEY WE WOULD BE BETTER TEACHERS” I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT HE HAD THE PROCESS ASSBACKWARDS.

TerryInIowa

I did a google search on that quotation you provided, there was one result. This thread. So no one has quoted this, except you, since the 80’s when it was supposedly said. Also, typing in all caps does not make your fairy tale any more believable.

Anthony Keel

You can’t find everything on Google, it is especially hard to find something from 35 years ago, any 10 year old can tell you that.

TerryInIowa

Then, where in the hell is Jackie Morrison pulling this quote from? When you quote someone, you provide the source, so that it can be verified. Also, there are plenty of quotes from 1980 on the internet, in fact, there are quotes from the 1700’s on the internet. Ask any 10 year old.

TerryInIowa

I can find quotes from over 200 years ago through Google. Is there a specific hole in the data from 35 years ago, or are you just blowing smoke? (Rhetorical question, that was.)

Howard Sands

The Republicans don’t believe in better education. Its the better educated voters that they fear the most.

Kim Serrahn

can you send links to this?

NOLA_Darling

You obviously don’t know ANYTHING about charter “school choice” because charter schools as much or more racially and socio-economically segregated as traditional public schools and while the GOP loves to proclaim the merits of school choice, their support for them miraculously ends when someone wants to being the model to predominately-white rural and suburban areas.

buttermade33

The Republicans blame unions for Michigans crumbeling economy. That’s like blaming the wheelchair for the cripples legs.

Vicki Gibson Pigg

Dumbing down is a result of Common Core initiative. Thank you Obama. It is not any parties fault. It is our fault for electing people WE did not investigate their backgrounds, their beliefs, their votes, their legislature. It is our responsibility to have due diligence to ensure who we place in any leadership position has the best interest of OUR nation at heart. Finger pointing won’t change the circumstances, only pro active planning and process will.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

Vicki Gibson Pigg …Democrats are the one’s opposing ‘school choice’ ‘ which is the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

—————–
Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Anonymous

She says as she ‘finger points’ to Obama. Just a bit hypocritical?

Harry Barr

Common Core is NOT only President Obama’s idea. Many schools and governors wanted this based on false reports provided by the Common Core advocates I have a family member who teaches and spends most of his time NOT teaching but testing. Many teachers and parents HATE Common Core because it does NOT help students, it only makes test companies richer and degrades every student. Of course, republicans advocate Common Core because it supports their HATE of teachers and unions and students. Republicans want our children to be uneducated about history, civil rights, the Constitution, science and on & on. Public education is NOT the problem and every child can learn under almost any circumstances. Certainly, there are a few bad teachers but, they are few & far between and seldom last. The major problem is racist, bigoted whites who for whatever excuse they have to move and listen to the narrative presented by racists who will NEVER help improve any bad situation or tell the TRUTH!! Unfortunately, we the people, do NOT get involved and understand what is really going on behind the scenes!!! Remember this is all about SUPER-RICH WHITE GREED & POWER!!!

Jerry Snook

You say finger pointing won’t help yet your second line points the finger at the President? And for Common Core, which was not created by the President or the feds, it was a state initiative.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

wrong Lois Payette Democrats are the one’s opposing ‘school choice’ ‘ which is the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Kim Serrahn

You keep saying that but I’d bet the smart money isn’t listening to you.

Christopher Denney

Divisiveness sells papers, or page clicks, you can blame the media because they are fanning the flames that would otherwise die out. People typically stop and look at car crashes, or other accidents, they don’t want them to happen*, but it gets their attention. There is a huge difference between getting people’s attention and “giving them what they want”.

* well some black-hearted folks do want bad things to happen, so they can generate page clicks/sell papers.

G Man

No the media doesn’t give people what the want. The choose what to cover and therefore tell us what is important

Guest 007

People just hate ghetto people. No offense, but there’s just a disproportionate amount of ghetto black people than there are ghetto white, etc

guest

Have you SEEN the white trailer trash in the south!? Disproportionate my arse. Ghetto is ghetto no matter the color of skin. Call it what you wish. You only need to open your eyes to realize the real lies.

Alexis

the term *ghetto* has been wrongly applied over time, anyway. it was used way back in reference to poor Jewish, and even Irish, neighborhoods. and of course, not everybody who lived, or lives in, a ghetto, is trashy. now, when trailer parks are mentioned, hahahahaha. ya, i see where that stereotype applies. and some housing projects. it isnt about color, it’s about acting and doing right.

nattxn

It is not just the trailer trash in the south, I know plenty of well to do southerners that are racist, I think it is inbred in them.

Nisqually

How about black racists who hate whites? Is that also “inbred” in them?

Anthony Keel

I know a bunch of Democrats that are racist, your comment means nothing.

Nisqually

I live in the South and while I see white people living in trailers, they certainly aren’t anything like the “gangsta” Hoodlums who smoke and deal pot all day long. Your uninformed rebuttal holds no water….

Milton E. Findley

Your uninformed characterization of inner city blacks also holds no water, dryer than a popcorn fart, in fact.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

@Stressor:disqus …Democrats are the one’s opposing ‘school choice’ ‘ which is the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

—————–
Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Milton E. Findley

The public school system is the foundation of American democracy, and knowing that as I do, I will fight the separate and unequal school choice nonsense all day with every atom of my being. And madam, I am a union man, it keeps the whole country from being taken over by businesses run by petty feudal lordlings.

Milton E. Findley

We absolutely are opposing school choice, which is a euphemism for separate and unequal. Why not high expectations for everybody, and equal opportunity for everybody? That is the true expectation of the Democratic party. Make the public schools successful.

Nisqually

Really? Let’s go visit Queens, or Harlem to see which of us is correct……

Milton E. Findley

I have been to both places, and I work in the inner city of Milwaukee, and have for the last twenty years. I know which one of us is correct.

Anthony Keel

I know it couldn’t possibly be you.

Kim Serrahn

naw they’re just sitting around drinking beer watching the grass grow. and before you start my mothers family are hillbillies. They don’t fly the Stars and Stripes but the Stars and Bars and yes they do live in trailers and yes they think the only good n***** is and dead n*****. I do not know very many white southern people that are not racist homophobes. So what was that about holding water?

Nisqually

Kim, you must not know many white Southen people then, because not all of them are like that today. Also, how many black southern people are non racists? You see, it goes BOTH ways, unfortunately. Pretending it doesn’t is living in a fantasy.

Kim Serrahn

Here’s a snippet of info for everyone. My great Uncle on my mothers side was a Grand Dragon/Wizard/Muffti whatever you want to call him in the 1930’s when the KKK was restarted as a man’s club. He was one of the founding fathers, so to speak, I still have all on my mother side living in NC where the grass does grow tall in the front and they do lost cars and such all the time. They don’t fly old Glory , but instead fly the stars and bars. Their motto is “a good nigger is a dead nigger” and yes I used the word. Not much experience with the south or it’s people. I live in god forsaken Tx for crying out loud and if Tx isn’t as racist as they come then I don’t know what is. And I so wish I lived in a fantasy, life would be so simpler.

Nisqually

With all due respect, your great uncle might have been a bigot back in the day, but that doesn’t mean that ALL or even most white southerners are racists NOW. And as far as Texas is concerned, I thind it remarkable that you happen to know each and every citizen of that state and thusly, are qualified to blanket label them all as white supremacists. Personally, I’ve never been to Texas, but I have relatives who live there, they’re certainly not racists, in fact, they’ve adopted interracially and love their adopted child every bit as much as their other kids. So you do not speak for ALL of Texas, anymore than you speak for the entire South. Granted, there is indeed SOME racism in the South – as in anywhere else, but , nowadays, that racism goes both ways.

Anthony Keel

Racism and homophobia is 2 completely different subjects and there are thousand if not millions in the south that are not racist. I mean come on, in the US, whites are becoming minority and when the white population is nearly gone are you going to blame Hispanics next because the are the closest to white skin tone?

Elizabeth Miller

Wow you’re full of hypocrisy. Is smoking pot worse than cooking, selling and using meth, which a lot of poor whites in trailers use?

Nisqually

Likewise Elizabeth….. And what is the ratio of rural white trash meth users to inner city drug users? Give some facts to support your claim, not just rhetoric.

Milton E. Findley

Far more white drug users than black drug users. The populations use drugs at roughly the same rate, and there are a lot more white people than there are black people. And you can find those facts from several places, the CDC, NIDA, SAMSHA, or state agencies, or not, suit yourself.

Anthony Keel

It depends are where your from, several areas around the country can throw your claim out of the water.

Alexis

no, it isnt disproportionate. i lived in a neighborhood that was about 65% black 35% white. i would have rather been neighbors with the black ppl.

Opie Bigay

HONEY BOO BOO

Stephen Muehleisen

To find “ghetto whites” you have to go rural.

Rose

I call bullcrap on that!

Dennisdread_2000

Disliking someone because every time he sees you he does something bad to you, is kinda different from him disliking you because he thinks he’s better than you.

Opie Bigay

You keep right on hanging with the real white as you put sooner or later you will find out about the real white. I had a friend that only wanted to be with the real white people who she worked with and when the company had problems she was the first to be let go even with her being with this company longer than some of the white worker that was hired after her. Oh so what happen to her real white people they left her ass along.

Anthony Keel

It is racism to point the finger at someone, to allegate that someone is racist usually means that them themselves are racist.

Nisqually

There is a far greater amount of racism in the black community. Many blacks can’t get along with ANYONE else – whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans,, ect. They can’t even get along with themselves, as indicated by the disproportionate amount of black on black crime., making them solely responsible for their own self hatred. Yet, instead of facing the reality that its problems are self inflicted, and actually DOING something about them, , most of the black community would rather blame whites , Until the black community faces reality and changes, it will continue to be what it is now.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

biggest bunch of nonsense i ever read who is this louis farrakhan behind this name @Mentoty?

The left don’t want racial harmony..

Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

Democrats always were the racist …Same today with Democrat Progressives opposing ‘school choice’ ‘the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

Kathy

Raised by OLD WHITE RACIST!

Brian

And Trayvon Martin and his G/F calling Zimmerman (a multi-racial hispanic) a creepy ass cracker is not racist on their part?

Jonathan Evan Stern

Who’s saying that bigotry is or was exclusively white? The vast majority of these comments have been stating that racism is alive and in every ethnic group.

Brian

I agree that every race has their small % of racist jerks. But the media only focuses on white racists. Cosmo from Sienfeld show, Paula Dean. Where is the outrage over racists remarks from other races.. You dont see it with the anger/passion when a white person says something stupid.

Jonathan Evan Stern

I agree, but I was also not outraged at Paula Dean’s remarks or that guy who played Kramer’s jokes (well them being racist). I am however offended by her incredibly unhealthy cooking and the fact that his jokes just weren’t funny. I don’t mean they weren’t funny in a “Dude, not funny kind of way,” I mean not funny like “Garden State.”
I think was is worse, and what this article is talking about, is the active disenfranchisement of blacks and Hispanics that the GOP have been practicing for years. I think that the media needs to shut up about the ethnic slurs and talk about how substandard the US’s education, infrastructure, healthcare system, and current civil rights records are. As my father often said, “It’s not what you say. It’s what you do.”

Brian

While I know of Paula’s cooking, I never watched her show (or any other cooking shows) so her cooking never offended me. I disagree with you about the “active disenfranchisement” of blacks or hispanics that you claim exists. I think its more that the left PR machine makes it appear that way. For starters, the left makes immigration issue about race. Its not, Rs are not against immigration, but just want it done legally with proper criminal and medical background checks like was done with Ellis Island decades ago. But thats not how the media tells it. they play the race card and low information voters of the D party falls for it. As for blacks, if a person works hard, wants to get educated and succeed in life the Rs are all for it for ANYONE of any race. But the Ds tell the inner city blacks that unless the Rs want to give them a check for life they are racist and they fall for it. There are plenty of conservative black men out there. Thomas Sowell. Herman Cain, Alan West but the liberal media tears them apart.

Dennisdread_2000

You mean like the president?

wanagiakicita

Look at your own party……they hold up mascots for themselves rather than enveloping a whole community of people. And your comment about Ds “giving” checks out, you just proved everything we’ve been thinking here. We want to help those who CANNOT HELP themselves. The poor, single mothers, disabled, children, the mentally ill, elders…….who do YOU want to help? I don’t think you care. It’s all about “you”.

Brian

the Rs are NOT against the safety nets that exist in the US. However we Rs believe that the long term solution to poverty is a two way street. Yes the poor should get their checks, but they also could be doing things that helps them get out of poverty. taking classes for better education or job training. Quit abusing booze/drugs/gambling or any “vice” that sucks up money. have a work ethic and personal responsibility instead of running around playing the victim.

Elizabeth Miller

Yes because minorities and whites have equal opportunity. You are so misinformed.

Brian

I am very well informed. I grew up a history buff and political/news junkie. I am very aware that minorities in the past did not have the same opportunities as whites. However 1 Slavery ended 150 years ago with the end of the civil war once and for all. 2 while the Democrats created the KKK and Jim crow laws that oppressed minorities for another 100+ years the Civil rights act of 1965 ended those once and for all as well. the baby Boomer generation who grew up in that environment were hurt by those laws. However their kids and grandkids did NOT grow up oppressed. (gen X and their kids born in the 1990s and 2000s.) by Jim Crow laws. Some of those Boomers are now becoming great grandparents as the kids born in the late 80s and early 90s are now in their 20s and starting to have kids as well. So now with 3 generations past the end of Jim Crow laws there comes a point where personal responsibility has to kick in. MLKjr fought for the equal rights and opportunities for people who’s generation HAD personal responsibility but did not have the rights to do anything. Now the problems of the minority communities largely self-inflicted.

Dennisdread_2000

Others were offended, whether you were or not.

balance

Brian, you’re hugely misunderstanding racism and its proportions and effects. I suggest you do some research.

Catehess7

There’s racism–the belief that all members of each race
possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or
races.

Then there’s bigotry–intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself:

Then there’s prejudice–preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience:

I do not believe by these definitions above that all races can be racist. As blacks when have we been in a position to distinguish ourselves as a result of our imagined superiority? Furthermore, laws, statues, systems and ways of life have been designed around how to distinguish whites from people of color and continue to perpetuate this notion of superiority. THAT’S how racism differs from the latter two. When one goes further to the notion of so-called ‘reverse racism’ one then would have to acknowledge that racism exists or existed and then cynically determine that these same laws, statutes, systems and situations have mysteriously evolved and that no redress is necessary. THAT’S racism. Now we can see a commonality with regard to bigotry and prejudice because those two definitions are easily attributable to every race. What would be helpful is for us all to come to grips with the fact that recognizing, or acknowledging who and where we are with regard to these terms is but the first step in our healing of ourselves and our nation and yes, our world. But as long as we continue to debate definitions and who is and who isn’t, we leave space for the puppeteers to continue to steer us toward a very cynical and unfortunate state of unrest and discord. Live and learn a better way. Peace

wanagiakicita

Great explanation and a perfect definition of the Republican Neo Conservative Party in this country. We have regressed 50+ years. Very sad!

Cracker was the term given to the overseer/slave master because the sound of the whip made a CRACKING sound off the backs of slaves. HOW is THAT term demeaning and racist?

Brian

1. OK Lets play devils advocate and say “Cracker” is meant for the slavery era. Why use it now? Slavery has been gone 150 years. so calling anyone cracker today is meaningless. We dont call cars or semi trucks covered wagons from the same 1800s era. 2 Most white people of the slavery era of the US 1776 to 1860s civil war did not own salves. 90% of all slave owners were in Southern states that fought the civil war and only the richest of those could afford slaves. The slave owners were the equivalent of the 1% of their day. 3 Most states west of the Mississippi River did not exist and were created after the Civil War ended. For example, Nebraska, Colorado, Washington, Nevada, are just 4 examples of states not around during the slave era. 5 The vast majority of white immigrants to the US came over through Ellis Island after the Civil war never owned slaves or shot “Native Americans” But are hammered with political correctness because the horrible practice of slavery happened 100 years ago on US soil. 6 One more thing. GZ was multi-racial. He had black grandparents or great grandparents, A Peruvian mom (Hispanic) and a White Dad. So he would have been the last person to call “cracker”.

Catehess7

Right. George Zimmerman allowed for a discussion on his heritage. I imagine they will exhume Trayvon’s body to get a retraction.

Brian

The liberal media made the GZ trial nothing but race. IF both people were the same race (whatever the race one can pick) it never makes the national media.

Catehess7

Really? That’s your best response? The exhaustingly trite ‘liberal media’? If anything, it’s THE most CONSERVATIVE media I have ever seen because it is all about fear and loathing. Regardless, our best options are to band together for meaningful and positive change otherwise they definitely win. Peace.

Dennisdread_2000

Right wingers had a chance to say, “hey this about a child(teen) coming home from the store, minding his own business”.

Instead, they had to all come to the fore telling everyone and sundry how it WASN’T about race.

Odd how to the racists, it never is.

Brian

1. the liberals made this about race. GZ was multi-racial. He had Hispanic mom (Peru, White Dad, Black parent/grandparent of his Peruvian mom. GZ only needed an Asian or a Native american to complete the set) The police and the FBI investigated this incident and the facts stood that this was a strictly self defense shooting. but TM’s parents went whining to Al Al sharpton and the media and they went race baiting. Neither person did anything illegal up until the fatal fight. TM had the right to walk around. GZ had the right to follow any strangers (Tm did not live there but was just visiting & temporary staying with his dad’s gf) or people living their acting strangely as a neighborhood watch program. IF Tm felt scared, he could have used his cell phone and called 911 himself or simply as a top in shape jock, simply outrun the flabby out of shape far older GZ. But like most teenagers of any race, esp jocks, TM had this macho man attitude that he could kick GZ butt and chose to attack. TM was not cornered in some dark alley fenced off with no way out but a housing community with plenty of room to run, about 100 yards from the residence he was temp staying. Both people could have done things to DE-escalate the situation, but that does not change the fact this was a self defense shooting. When TM decided to attack GZ this crossed the line between legal and illegal activity.

Dennisdread_2000

Do you know that Martin attacked Zimmerman? We know that’s what Zimmerman said, but we don’t know that’s what happened, do we? No..we don’t.

We do know though that Zimmerman was out to get him. And Martin ended up dead. Put two and two together. Go ahead. I know you can.

And yes, for you, this is all about race. You really need to stop lying about that, too.

Brian

THis was not about race. In fact A buddy’s FB page had a similar story on his page about a black guy who went outside with a gun to stop some white guys who were allegedly messing with a neighbor’s car. Possibly breaking into it to steal the radio, but since the neighbor went outside to stop the alleged crime it never got that far. One of the white teenagers had the same macho man attitude and charged the black guy and he shot him. Unlike the TM/GZ case the teen never laid a finger on the neighbor. The neighbor was acquitted by the jury for the same reason. Justifiable shooting due to self defense. This case was in the NY/NJ area. So it was due to the facts of the case. not race. As for the TM/GZ we have not just GZ word, but forensics. 1 TM punched GZ in the face causing a broken nose and knocked him down and was bashing GZ’s head in the back of the concrete causing wounds that photos were shown in court and the national media. TM had NO wounds except the single gun shot would anywhere.2 also the woman that TM was on the phone admitted to Pierce Morgan on an interview on live TV that She told TM she thought GZ might be a gay rapist and TM said he was going to get him. Thus providing intent. The Sandford police investigated the incident and decided NOT to charge GZ ruling it was self defense. It was the liberal media lead by Al Sharpton & Obama that made this a race case and using it as election year fodder to fire up their base. (remember the shooting occurred in early 2012) Be honest. if these two men had the same race no matter what the race was, this story never makes the national media and we both know it.

Brian

Also IF GZ really had it out for TM, he could have shot him from the truck ala drive by and no one would have seen it clearly in the dark & rain. GZ certainly would not have called LE /911 as well. How many criminals call the cops when they are going to commit murder. Bottom line as i said before this situation could have been DE-escelated by both men who had things spin out of control faster then either of them realized.

wanagiakicita

I think you are still trying to justify MURDER…..it’s over, unfortunately GZ is on the street again. But Karma is a great equalizer. We haven’t seen the end of him yet.

Brian

Its not murder. Tm attacked GZ, knocked him down and was on top of him & beating the crap out of Gz. How is GZ shooting him once in self defense murder? had GZ plugged him with a hunting rifle & scope 100 yards away, or a drive by or emptying the magazine of the gun (10 rounds) then you have an argument for murder. but the way things played out it was a clearly self defense shooting.

Elizabeth Miller

No. He probably didn’t intend to kill TM. But he shot him because he was losing the fight. GZ is a coward.

Nisqually

Zimmerman was no coward. He was in a life and death struggle and did what he needed to do in order to survive. Anyone in his shoes would have done the same, including you. I mean, what was he supposed to do, just stand there passively and let himself be killed, all for the sake of political “correctness”?

Serenity

Dennis you are wasting your time he will blame Dems. for Everything I mean don’t they always it’s like arguing with A sign post sad thing is way to many People act as if they were there the Night GZ killed TM let it go he can’t argue alone.

You mean Zimmerman’s head wound? Zimmy, drunk and un athletic, slipped in the grass and fell on his head while chasing Martin. Or..the cops put it there for him to aid in his ‘defense’.

There’s two alternate theories right there for you.

Nisqually

Except that neither of those theories is substantiated by a forensic expert……

wanagiakicita

The Liberals made this about a man stalking a teenager, hunting him down like a dog, killing him and getting away with it. Open and shut….GZ is still a murderer. If someone was stalking me, you better believe I would attack him to stop the f er.

Brian

Gz was not stalking Tm. He was a neighbor hood watch member. He followed Tm while on the phone with LE which was what one was supposed to do. Had TM NOT attacked GZ then there would have been no reason for GZ to shoot TM. then no killing in self defense. once again, had GZ shot TM WITHOUT Tm attacking then you have a case for murder. Simple as that. As for liberals of course they make out the case the way they did. Liberals are anti-gun, and race baitors for political gain. If these two men both have the same race of any race, this story never makes the national news.

Joan

The police dispatcher had told the wonderful neighborhood watch man named Zimmerman to quit following Martin and Zimmerman didn’t do it. If he had followed orders this would never have happened, but his big macho ego wouldn’t let him listen to the orders.

Elizabeth Miller

What’s also odd is how right wingers say it’s not about race, but they loved throwing the term “thug” around when describing TM. But not to GZ who had a criminal record and was walking around with a gun. Interesting how that works.

Brian

People use the term “thug” for ANY criminal. My niece is dating a guy in the state pen for being a meth-head and committing burglary to support his habit. We use the term “thug” as a way of being nice when we really want to call him worse words. And he is white. So Thug is not some secret code-word. I find it interesting how the left in recent years has been screaming “code words” to try and brain wash people into thinking something is more then what it is and its not just a race issue. Diane Sawyer a year or two ago stated that if homeowner shoots a home invader who is breaking in to rob rape or kill and when the homeowner uses the phrase ” I shot him because I was in fear of my life” that the phrase are
“Code words” to get away with murder. what BS. If some criminal breaks into my home in the dead of night I will try to save the lives of my spouse or kids as best I can.

Nisqually

It’s also odd how left wingers tried to paint Michal Brown as a victim of racism, yet say nothing about the elderly Asian American storekeeper he robbed and pushed around moments before he attacked officer Wilson. Interesting how THAT works.

Nisqually

Its also odd how the racists try to turn a murderous thug into a “child minding his own business”. Some hypocrites’ knee jerk reaction is to put race in EVERYTHING, even if they have to twist the facts in order to do so, as in this case. So don’t blame the people trying to refute the lie, blame those who are spreading the lie to begin with.

Dennisdread_2000

The murderous thug was the one who was out ..with a gun..stalking people he didn’t know, specifically black people he didn’t know.

The murderous thug is the one out here still getting into trouble. The murderous thug is the one who has a long record of assaulting women, police, and engaging other anti social behaviors.

You just love him because he killed a black male.

Racist.

Dennisdread_2000

The fact that the conservatives are lined up so firmly behind Zimmerman AGAINST the black people proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is about race.

Otherwise, you protest too much.

Rebecca Edwards

That’s exactly how I felt Dennisdread… it turned into REpublicans vs. Dems… the republicans taking the side of the white man, the dems taking the side of the black man. It’s a sad sad world when a person can’t think on their own and has to do what their political party wants and not based on their own beliefs, which then makes me think that republicans are racist assholes. Brainwashed much?

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

Wrong @disqus_F9kEzbe2jA:disqus … Republicans take NO SIDE ,. ITS DEMS WHO PANDER ,… ITS Democrats WHO are the one’s opposing ‘school choice’ ‘ which is the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

—————–
Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Brian

GZ was Hispanic, not White. only in the US can a Hispanic man shoot a back guy in self defense and be twisted to blame the white race. the reason Rs lined up behind GZ was Obama and his race baiter started it by blaming whites for the actions of Hispanic. Also it was a clearly self defense and the left wanted to use this case to go after gun rights, and stand your ground laws and the Second Amendment in general. If TM either runs or uses his phone to call LE if he felt in danger and anything else but attack GZ then GZ does not have to shoot in self defense and Tm lives to see another day and GZ life goes on as just another US citizen. It was never about race until the left made it a race.

Elizabeth Miller

His dad was white. And Hispanic and Latino are not races. You can be a black, brown or white person who happens to be either Latino, Hispanic or both. GZ’s dad was white and his mother was brown.

Brian

Latino and Hispanics are not a “race”? Tell that to the D party when they throw the race card around when the topic of ILLEGAL immigration comes up. They love to claim that any person who wants people who immigrate to the US to follow the laws on the books on immigration just like any other person who immigrated to the US since 1776 and Not the masses sneaking through the border with no criminal or medical background check into the US.

Nisqually

Actually, black and white aren’t races either, because, biologically speaking, the notion of “race” doesn’t exist. But, be that as it may, many Hispanic/Latinos in Central & Middle America have at least partial Native American ancestry, just as many African Americans have partial white or Native ancestry. So if Black is a race, so is Latino or Hispanic. Obama’s mother was white, yet he’s called “black”. Maybe we should call him a “white African American” because Zimmerman’s no more white than he is.

Anthony Keel

That has nothing to do with it

Dennisdread_2000

Please.

wanagiakicita

You know if you don’t get it now you never will. People are TAUGHT to be racist…it comes from family and peers. If you ARE a racist, at times you don’t even identify with the fact that you are one, until you make a post like the one above, rationalizing it. GZ was a murderer and is lucky that is all he is called.

Brian

I am so sick of the race card being thrown around for anyone with an agenda. I am not racists because GZ shot Tm in self defense. My prom date in HS 27 years ago was a daughter of Asian Boat people refugees from the fall of Saigon. After my divorce in 2001, I dated a Jewish woman. My brother in law is Hispanic and my daughter in law (to a stepson) is native American. So I associate and get a long great with other races and i respect all the individuals I mentioned. Bottom line if TM runs instead of attacks he lives to see another day. THat is not about race. The police investigated the case that very night and saw it for what it was self defense. the jury ruled the same way after a year & a half of seeing the gathered evidence in court. Bottom line as was mentioned before by another poster. IF GZ & TM were the same race this case never makes the national media and no one outside the friends or family of those involved gives a shit about the incident. But because one person happened to be African-american, Al sharpton and others make this a race issue and the media eats it up.

guest69

TM did run and was chased. Now answer me this. If TM was on top of GZ, beating his head into the ground when GZ pulled out his gun and shot him in the heart… where the hell is the blood that should have been all over GZ. No, thinking it was self defense doesn’t make you a racist, it makes you a complete effing idiot.

Brian

Very simple. Sometimes when a person is shot with a small caliber weapon. Ie pistol, certainly anything smaller than a rifle bullet or a shotgun blast that tears human flesh apart, a bullet can hit a person and cause massive internal bleeding with very little blood going outside the body. For example When Regan was shot by John Hinkly in 1981 the ER staff at Walter Reed initially thought that Regan was having a heart attack at first or perhaps broke a rib when the secret service pushed him into the limo after the shooting. It was not until a staff member went through Reagan’s clothing thrown on the floor and found a hole did they realize that he had been shot. Reagan bled badly internally but very little was outside thus fooling the SS & ER Dr.s there is a very good documentary on that day that once or twice a year is on the Military Channel. I am not a dr, but I speculate the same thing happened with TM. He was shot and the vast majority of bleeding was internal. Had the bullet gone completely through him then Tm would have bleed out his back and you would have seen it from the crime scene photos.

Nisqually

You’re right, racism is taught to children, but nowadays, that happens a lot more in the Black community than it does in the White. And George wasn’t the murderer, Trayvon was, or at least would have been if Zimmerman hadn’t acted in self defense.

Jay Brandt

That is IF by cracker he meant white…maybe he just meant not black?

Milton E. Findley

He sure did a cracker thing though, didn’t he? Hmmm? Without plumbing the depths of his psyche it is easy to explain his crackerness.

Paul Robinson

“crackerness” haha

gian keys LOVES shemale porn

graham cracker?

Paul Robinson

The term,” cracker”, is associated with the term “sunshine”, also used to describe southern white rural people. Brought to you by the cookie company that sells the Sunshine hotel crackers.

Brian

Sure Paul, and all minorities refer to whites as “cracker” as a term of endearment in honor of bright happy “sunshine crackers”. and I have ocean front property in Kansas to sell you. that remark was sarcasm by the way,

I am a Georgian. I do not want to be called a Georgia Cracker. I know full well that it is a term applied to racists.

Brian

Nice Westie in your profile photo. My wife & I have one too. Love their attitude!

Brian

Uh… Maybe because slavery has been gone for over 150 years. And the vast majority of White Americans living in the US are NOT decedents of slave owners who were the 1% of their day. And they certainly don’t use cracker as a term of endearment or a compliment. Its a “code word” the media loves to play with and complain about .

Dennisdread_2000

Martin wasn’t following him nor did Martin shoot him. Please. He didn’t even call Zimmerman that to his face..Zimmerman had no idea Martin referred to his as a creepy ass cracker..and what was Martin supposed to think anyway?

This man is my new best friend? Please stop this willful stoopidity!

Brian

1 The fact that TM still said it does not make him less racist whether GZ heard it or not. Paula dean said the N word 30 years ago. No one knew it until it came out this year. 2 GZ shot TM because TM attacked him and was beating the crap out of him and might have killed him had he not shot him. the left making this out to be a racist case keeps forgetting that simple fact. if Tm did not attack GZ, and goes straight home, he lives to see another day and no one ever hears of either of these two people. The fact that GZ had black grandparents or Great Grandparents seems be completely ignored by the media going on a racists based witch hunt.

Dennisdread_2000

If Martin attacked him and we have no proof that he did, then maybe it was because he was scared of this strange man with evil intent following him..and no Zimmerman did not hear Martin refer to him(to a 3rd party) as a creepy ass cracker(and neither did you until the trial) so that point is moot.

Christopher Richey

Dennis. That is twice that you have said “if Martin attacked him and we have no proof…” Of course, since you have read the transcripts from the trial, I am sure that you notice the testimony from the coroner about the ballistics of the shot? You know, where the physics of the situation confirm that, in fact, Martin was ON TOP OF Z?

lestye

And maybe Trayvon was trying to protect himself from this stranger with a gun, afraid if he walked away, he’d get shot in the back….a scenario just as possible as the one you’re assuming happened. Some men feel pretty cocky when they’ve got a gun…and with the fact that Zimmerman was feeling bold enough to ignore the instructions of the police to walk away after calling in, shows he could have said/done anything, including telling this 16 year old kid that he was armed…provoking him into a fight or flight mode, where he made a split second decision he had a better chance of survival if he fought.

Christopher Richey

Wow…three months later and you still don’t understand that Z was had lost track of T until T doubled back and attacked Z…if Z wanted to just shoot someone he would have when he first saw T…he did not. He only fired AFTER he was being assaulted…for possibly being gay.

dummypants

So tell, me, what’s more racist – calling a white person cracker or shooting a kid because he’s black? I hope you die in a fire.

Brian

He did not shoot him because of the color of his skin. He shot Tm because Tm was on top of him slamming his head into the concrete sidewalk and would have died had he not shot TM

Dennisdread_2000

Zimmerman was stalking him, and Zimmerman ended up killing him. So, yes, he was creepy.

What do you think Zimmerman meant by his “f*cking coons” comment?

Brian

GZ never said the “F Coons” on the conversation with the LE dispatcher. ABC & NBC were busted editing the 911 calls to make GZ appear to be racists. GZ had black grand parents or great grandparents and there are picts of them. Google it.

wanagiakicita

…and TM never said “cracker” to GZ either, you are showing your hypocrisy……

Brian

THe woman (Rachel) that TM was on the cell phone with prior to the attack testified in court that TM told her that a creepy ass cracker was following him. So by her own words in court, TM said them.

Joan

Do you have proof that the pictures are real? Anything can be said and done on the internet.

Brian

Regardless of whether the photos of GZ ancestors are true or photo shopped, GZ family history tree can be found like any other normal person living in the US. bottom line no one has denied GZ multi racial history.

Elizabeth Miller

Seriously? Who cares if he had black grandparents? He followed a kid he shouldn’t have been following and shot him dead.

Brian

who GZ grandparents were indirectly matters to this story. the media was going apeshit trying so hard to make this a race-based shooting. It was not the case. GZ was fulfilling the neighborhood watch role. yes he was following a stranger and being on the phone wih 911 dispatchers. However that’s where you went wrong. GZ stopped following and turned back to his vehicle. With his back turned to TM that’s when TM chose to attack. he knocked GZ down and was slamming his head into the concrete and GZ fired one shot self defense into TM. So to say that he followed some kid and shot him dead is a bad twist on the story and the court trial by jury cleared GZ.

Nisqually

….Except that that “kid” was bigger than a lot of grown men and he initiated the violence by assaulting Zimmerman. Tell the WHOLE story.

Jay Brandt

Yes…and that make shooting him perfectly justified!

Brian

If having your head slammed into a sidewalk multiple times does not justify shooting in self defense then I don’t know what does.

And you know this how? Since Treyvon was alone at the time Zimmerman killed him.

Brian

Because the woman that Tm was on the phone with before him attacking GZ testified in the court case that Tm did call GZ a creepy ass cracker. It in the transcripts and public record. Maybe you can even find her testimony on youtube of news reports of the trial on Youtube. or you can contact the court itself and get a copy of the transcripts.

Dennisdread_2000

They’ve been listening to Limbaugh et al for 30 years.

gailillly

I’m with you Downriver. The South is still fighting the god dam war, they refuse to put their confederate flags away. and the south has a lot of redneck ignorant fools down there. Get over yourself. YOU LOST THE YANKEES WON and that is a fact.

Saundra Ragona

Just like some of the South is still fighting the Civil War, Republicans can;t accept the fact they lost the election.. THE YANKEES WON and OBAMA is PRESIDENT,

Chuck

I am in Fl so I am NOT a Yankee but I am a staunch and active Democratic party member and my state went to Obama twice. I will freely admit our state is red as can be, our great state is run by (R)’s and they have their way with us pretty well but we do vote for Democratic Presidents. (We went to Gore also but SCOTUS screwed us)

Paul Reynolds

No Jeb Bush screwed you.

Chuck Reed

it was the Supreme Court that called a halt to the re-count. I hear often about the many recounts, the only complete hand re-count was the one halted by SCOTUS

please don’t think i don’t agree with you that jeb screwed us, he is still screwing us…

Brian

After the election many different news organizations went to FLA to do recounts and they did constantly till 9/11 stole the thunder. Bottom line is that every recount they did Bush won. Deal with it.

wanagiakicita

There was a detailed study done after the election. Contrary to what you believe not all votes were counted. The study found that Gore probably would have won, by a range of 42 to 171 votes out of 6 million cast, had there been a broad recount of all disputed ballots statewide. But the plug was pulled when the SCOTUS ruled the election was over and gave it to Bush.

Brian

You talk about the “disputed” ballots. All SCOTUS said was that If your going to recount some “disputed” ballots, you have to recount ALL ballots. So in the end Bush still wins Florida.

wanagiakicita

If the Republicans get their way and do away with voting rights in many of these states, they may never go D again. They are stripping rights away like toilet paper.

Mary G.

The “Yankees” didn’t win. Those of us who care about human beings won! I’m a white woman living in the south, and proud to say I voted for Obama both elections!

Robert BUnn

You are a bigoted hateful piece of garbage. You can’t just say “The South” then say some stupid generalization and wash your hands of it like its fact. This is exactly the reason why Southern Dems and Northern Dems hate each other. You can see it at the Convention. You guys look down your noses at us, 200+ years later. You think your better and that we are all a bunch of toothless, gun toting, idiots. The only thing that makes us stupid.. is that were not walking about slapping you all in the hallways to knock some respect into you.

kim

Whoa, a little paranoid? I believe this post was about Republicans not Democrats. Northern or Southern, being that there is a belief that Dems. have evolved. But hey if the shoe fits pretty good, walk a mile in that baby!

balconesfalk

So what did the South really “lose”? They lost the right to enslave other humans for their own financial gain and they lost the right to lynch black people at will. If they could just come to face the fact that these things are immoral as well as illegal maybe they could begin to get over it. LBJ predicted that it would happen–pass Civil Rights Laws and lose the South to the Republican Party. He did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do in the cause of human rights.

Catehess7

what’s so sad is their progeny are the folks who wail the loudest about the ‘sanctity of life’ in the context of a human not yet seen, yet applaud the death of an unarmed teen who was simply trying to make his way back home with candy and iced tea.

Brian

Conservatives were not “applauding” a teen death. They were applauding the fact that the jury ruled it was a self defense justified shooting. IT is sad TM died but that does not make it a murder. The left say GZ stalked TM like some pervert stalking a college coed they wanted to serial kill. Wrong. GZ was a neighborhood watch guy doing his job, He followed TM, was reporting to the law enforcement. TM attacked and beat the crap out of GZ and GZ fearing for his life fired one bullet center mass. Not in the head, he did not empty the gun magazine, He did not do a drive buy shooting of TM, He did not plug TM with a hunting rifle from 200 yards away with a scope. GZ fired on bullet to end the threat of TM slamming his head in the concrete. The fact that TM died was a sad twist of fate. TM does not attack, he lives to see his family & GF.

Dennisdread_2000

Lie. Zimmerman went after him with a bad attitude and a gun. He pursued him, first in his vehicle then on foot. He got out of his vehicle, cornered and confronted him. Kid ends up dead.

None of those action is defensive or innocuous. All of those actions were aggressive. How is it you can not see that? What are you refusing to see that?

If Zimmerman doesn’t see Martin, then Martin makes it home alive. But the truth is that once Zimmerman saw him out there he was doomed.

oldermaybewizer

The members of the jury that commented to the media said they felt “GZ” had gotten away with murder, but according to their instructions, there was not enough evidence to convict.

tcaruso01

Because the judge, for some unexplained reason, used “Stand Your Ground” in her instructions to the jury even though the defense did not cite it during the trial and did not request it for a pre-trial review!!

wanagiakicita

Exactly right!

wanagiakicita

Even the jury concluded that they thought GZ was guilty and that they’d released a murderer, but on the evidence submitted that they could use in their decision they had to rule not-guilty…..which by the way is NOT a ruling of “INNOCENT”.

Dennisdread_2000

Lie.

Dennisdread_2000

They ‘made up’ for it with the Klan and Jim Crow though.

lessthantolerant

I would hate him if he were white, he is the most incompetent idiot ever elected.

Brian

Do you honestly think that IF the president was a white D (Bidden, Hillary, John edwards, any other white D) that the GOP would just smile and say Hey the presidents white, lets do what he/she says and never disagree again… BS. race does not matter, its the policies Obama chooses to try. What are you Ds going to do to argue when Obama is gone in 2017. Wont be able to play the race card when Hillary runs or whoever else the Ds throw up there.

Jonathan Evan Stern

True, but the fact that Obama is half black did add a little extra vitriol to the rhetoric. I’m sure if Hillary won there would be a misogynistic tone and if Biden won… Republican wouldn’t ride trains again?

Brian

The anger at Obama is not about race. Its his policies and his arrogance. IF HIllary, Biden, edwards or anyone else did the same policies the anger would be the same. I dont doubt there are a small % of racists who bitched about Obama’s race in order to slam him for the hell of it but those are the low information voters that each party has who vote for thier party based on one issue. Going by your logic any black person who did not vote Republican in the last two elections voted strictly based on race. so one can say that they were racist when they did not vote for McCain or Romney in 08 or 12. IF you dont vote for someone because of their race or you vote for someone because of their race, its racism either way.

Jonathan Evan Stern

I disagree with one point. I agree that it’s not really about race. It’s about Obama not being on the GOP’s team. There were definitely people who voted for and against him based off of the color of his skin, but the fact that the GOP has attacked him so relentlessly is based off of the fact that A. He’s the president, and B. He’s a Democrat. It doesn’t have anything to do with his policies since they’re almost identical to Bush’s. That’s why I voted for Stein last year. Obama didn’t come close to living up to my expectations, so I voted for the one who I knew couldn’t win, but would hopefully have her message heard and shared.

Dennisdread_2000

His arrogance..as if anyone could possibly be more arrogant than Dumbya was.

No..’arrogance’ is their new code word for ‘uppity’, and we all know what that means don’t we?

Brian

There are no “code words” that the tin foil hat left keeps wanting to bitch about. Arrogance is arrogance. Nothing more. nothing less.

Brian

the fact that the left tries to find and or accuse the the right of “codewords” shows they are grasping at straws to find ways to play the race card.

Dennisdread_2000

lie again

Elizabeth Miller

You don’t seem to understand subconscious racism, covert racism or dog whistle politics. Most racists don’t believe they’re racist. The whole birth certificate and needing to see his transcripts, calling him a Muslim Kenyan are all ways to otherize him which would never have happened had he been white. This is how race plays a role. Do you honestly believe no one in the GOP has a problem with Obama being half black? If you do I have a bridge I want to sell you.

lucydaisy

You are sooooo stoooopid

Kayne

We hate Obama because he is a war criminal not because he is black.

Paul

Kayne, do you feel the same way about George W. Bush? So long as we’re talking about war criminals? And don’t fool yourself, the hate for Obama started before he was even inaugurated.

Brian

And the hatred for Bush jr was there before he was in office. I constantly heard liberals bitch about how he “stole” the election therefore was not “their” president. Bottom line many news organizations did “investigative reporting” did recounts of the ballots until the 9/11 attacks stole the thunder and evry recount said the same thing. Bush won Florida. What lost Florida for Gore was Clinton taking that cuban boy in the dead of night and sending him back to his dad in Cuba in the summer of 2000. That pissed off the Cuban immigrant vote and let Bush squeak out the Florida election.

No one knows who won Florida in 2000 because they stopped the recount when it started to turn up some additional votes for Gore.Maybe Bush won ,Maybe Gore won point is no one will ever know.but as a moderate I accepted Bush Jr as our new President even though the recount start and stop was fishy.But watching 8 years of the Bush Jr presidency is why I am no longer a moderate.Watching Bush Jr squander a budget surplus and then claim the Democrat’s were the big spenders while spending our surplus on securing the future of Halliburton oil.Both parties need to seriously rearrange their priorities but I won’t hold my breath for the Corporate welfare partt to do anything right.

Brian

As i said just because Bush was made president did not stop news organizations from doing recounts themselves after the fact. Bottom line is non of their recounts brought a Gore victory. Which why the left changed arguments and instead claimed the “butterfly ballots” were confusing and had people vote for bush when they meant to vote for Gore. I dont buy that argument either. As for Bush destroying the Surplus that is a straw argument for many reasons. 1 the surplus was more from gov accounting tricks then a real surplus. 2 Another major contributor for the 1 yr surplus was the tech bubble. the gov made tons of money off of it and the tech bubble burst march of 2000. 10 months before Bush came into office. So to blame Bush for the loss of income from the tech bubble bursting and causing the 01 recession is wrong. 3 Remember the economy was good from the early 80s to the tech bubble bursting, but by the late 90s Wall st was cooking the books to inflate profits and with it stock prices. So while the economy was good, it was not as good as the media made it out to be. 4 The outsourcing the jobs to emerging markets started in the 90s under Clinton but was hidden by the .com revolution and was exposed after the tech bubble burst. 9/11 occurs forcing the US to a war footing. had Gore been in the WH, it still would have happened. The D party still panders to the Hispanic vote by not allowing real border security allowing wages of US citizens to be undercut and lowered in general. When Rs try to stop it the Ds holler racism. its not race, its economics. So while I agree things between 2001 -2013 are not as good as from 1982 to 2000 I dont blame the R party for them. Were the Rs perfect? hell no, not by a long shot. but for the Ds to blame every bad thing since 2001 on Bush the way they have is far beyond the truth. It was Clinton who told the banks to loosen credit standards that later lead to the abuse of credit during the Housing bubble. and it was Clinton who signed into law repealing the Glass/Stengel act letting Commercial & investment banks to merge thus creating the too big to fail monsters that fueled the credit abuse as well. But Bush gets the blame for everything because the snowball effects of everything came together on his watch. The main thing the Ds are better then the Rs are at is the PR machine.

Dwayne

Oh right, like how he is a Kenyan, and a Muslim brotherhood member? Hey how goes the search for those WMD’s, I hear they’re buried deep underground somewhere next to your brain.

Brian

1. I am not a birther. Not all people critical of Obama are. Are there some, Yes of course, but not all are. 2. Google George Piro and his interrogation of Saddam Hussien. Then look for the CBS interview (60 Minutes) Saddam admitted to Piro (FBI) that He (Saddam) carried out a disinformation program to fool the world into thinking his WMDS (which he had some left over from when he used them against Iran & the Kurds) were far more numerous and bigger nuke program then actually existed. Saddam’s program fooled the US and most of the world into thinking he had more WMDs then he actually did and were more advanced then they actually were as well. You hate the 03 Iraq war, fine, but the lies that lead to the war were Sadam’s not Bush. Saddam also sponsored the Fatah Revolutionary Council, the terror cell that carried out the 93 WTC truck bombing. An act of war itself. We can debate whether the 03 war in Iraq was worth the cost or not, but the war was legal and the lies that it was based on were Saddam’s not Bush.

Dennisdread_2000

lie

Brian

Did you research the information I provided or are you just spouting the D party line. Read the book “The War against America. Saddam Hussien and the World Trade Center attacks. By Laurie Mylroie. For the record she was a DEMOCRAT who worked for the Clinton as an adviser on Iraq. the WTC attack the book refers to is the 1993 truck bombing. She also taught at Harvard. The book which I have on my shelves is a detailed book on the 93 WTC attack and Saddam’s role in it.

Ervin Reynolds

I agree, the Republican party is becoming a thing of the past, but it can’t happen soon enough as far as I’m concerned. There may be a new generation of Republican’s rising, but their numbers are considerably fewer. When this old generation dies out maybe we will start seeing progress.

Brian

IF they are a more libertarian version of the R party focusing on smaller gov, lower taxes and greater economic freedom while staying away from social issues I agree with you. I just hope its not too late for the nation to be saved from Obama/D party socialists policies of trying to bring back big brother from Commie land. Time is running out. IF the Ds keep the senate and retake the house in 2014 the Consitution of the US is done for and our civil liberties (unless your gay or want to have an abortion) but economic freedom, capitalism, gun rights, freedom of speech, press, & religion will be a thing of the past.

Just where is this commie Land you talk about where democratic party Socialists are trying to bring back big brother from?Last I checked it was J Edgar Hoover a staunch Republican who used the FBI as his own personal fiefdom who introduced our country to Big Brother.Our original constitution counted Blacks as 3/5 of a person.Would you like that back too.If we make our taxes any lower Our Government will be forced to declare bankruptcy.We have done nothing but cut taxes for 30 years and all it has done is depress wages and create low paying service jobs.

Brian

Dont be ridiculous. 1 The 3/5 part about African Americans was on how the south wanted slaves counted in population when it came to sending representatives to the House. Since Slavery was banned with the emancipation proclamation and an finalized with an amendment to the constitution it wont be brought back and you know it. You must actually believe Biden’s election year remark that the Rs will put Blacks back in chains and remarks like that is part of the reason why the nation is so divided. 2 Hoover did use the FBI for his personal vendetta’s but he is long gone and no bearing for today. Obama is doing it now along with the NSA spying on people, The EPA giving farmer names & addresses to animal right activists so they can harass them. The reason the wages have gotten lower is because the D party panders to Hispanic voters by ignoring border security and allowing illegals en mass to swarm the border the past 20 years by two ways. massive amounts of labor for the jobs available and willing to do the same work for far less wages. It brings the entire wage scale downward. Besides income taxes paid to the gov when lowered would increase the amount of people a corporation can hire or increase pay for the same amount of workers on the same budget. Simple math. Raise income taxes and companies have less money in their budget and have to make cuts somewhere. So either lay off workers or have the same amount of workers take pay cuts. You put the cart before the horse.

George D. Miklos

I thought Obama was a White-African American..

Nisqually

No, “they” don’t hate Obama because he is black, anymore than you hate Condi Rice, and Herman Cain because they are. No, they “hate” him because he is an incompetent buffoon, and has so proven himself to be.

Elizabeth Miller

If Obama is a buffoon then what was Bush? A baboon?

Nisqually

Lol, Elizabeth, are you a RACIST??? Just asking because, if anyone called Obama a “baboon”, you’d be going into DTs. No, but seriously, if Obama is intelligent, he does a very good job of hiding it, as a review of his presidency up to this point will demonstrate. As for Bush, he graduate from Yale, which I daresay, is more than YOU have done , so, for your own credibility, perhaps you should curb your insults to his intelligence, At least he was smart enough to know when to defend his country. Obama plays golf while ISIS ( whose sworn goal is to conquer us) grows stronger every day. Time to wake up and smell the reality.

Anthony J. Mitchell

Obama is also as much white as he is black.

Guest

Downriver, your simplistic logic makes you look both niaeve and blind. Obama is disliked because of his inconsistenc

Nisqually

Downriver, how do you feel about the old racist black male dems, such as Sharpton, Jackson, Rev Wright, ect? Do you find them equally disgusting? If not, you are a hypocrite.

Justifymyconfessions

It’s a huge part of it.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

@DownriverDem:disqus try its MODERN DAY DEMOCRATS are the RACIST … you do know reverse racism is still racism ..but not even that ..it’s just The left don’t want racial harmony..

Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

Even today with Democrat Progressives opposing ‘school choice’ ‘the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

Jonathan Evan Stern

Actually these same people who are incredibly hard on Obama were also incredibly hard on Clinton. If he were who he is and had an R in front of his name instead of a D, then these conservative assholes would be calling him the next Reagan. I will admit that race does play a part in their rhetoric (Kenyan Muslim), but the vitriol and hatred comes, not from racism, but from party politics.

Christopher Denney

You are missing what Wealthyelite is saying. The 1% don’t give a rats behind about race (in general) all they care about is class. They are the new aristocracy, if you aren’t one of them, you are nothing. The way they distract the rest of us is by getting the folks directly below them on the ladder to agitate and cause unrest, that way we cannot pull a “French Revolution” on them.

gian keys LOVES shemale porn

I also———— Im Caucasian and sick of the white trash regressives who fall back on JEEEEEESUS SAYS!

Willie Wilson Jr

Having been around for seventy years bigotry is not going away. Being a man of color it will be here.

G Man

I don’t care what color our president is. What I care about is preserving the constitution and not moving toward socialism. I would vote for Condi Rice in a heartbeat…but she is too smart to rub for president.

JerseyJoe

Why do the rich want this? What benefit does a billionaire get by keeping people preoccupied and poor? No one is going to take him down from his perch. He will be a billionaire till the day he dies. What is the benefit in that? Normally they are bigger thinkers than that. There might be some that are evil, but most of the wealthy that have built their wealth are expansive thinkers and innovators.

Regarding the article, Allen is again making assumptions with one quote that is purely political in that it is from a strategist who like all strategists is in it to win. I’ve seen as much racism in the north as the south, the only difference being that the South actually is integrated and the North is largely segregated. The black population is a far greater percentage in the South than the North; the North just set the blacks up in urban housing which has segregated the groups.

Allen sets up straw men to knock them down. Terrible logic. Yeah, the Lincoln was a Republican” and the “Democrats started the KKK” arguments are all the only arguments Southerners use for why they vote for Republicans. No, Allen, again you are wrong. Southerners simply want the Constitution to be followed. They want a balanced budget. They demand the Bill of Rights be held dear. I grew up in the South among what many would call rednecks and have seen more doors held open for black and white women and older men and women of whatever race referred to as “sir” and “ma’am”. You have no relevant understanding of the South, Allen.

We do believe in God, and we believe in family, and our founding principles. The Republicans are voted for because the Democrats do not believe in many of those things and the free expression of those principles and values (a Constitutional right, just so you know).

Of course, we don’t like being called racists, and that initiates our pining away for great Americans as Thomas Sowell and Ben Carlson who are black and have common and uncommon sense. We would love to see any such right thinking black man or woman (Ms. Rice) in the White House. No, it is not skin color, it is principles.

Kenny Shackleford

I live in the South and have always lived in the South. I am white and I have fought for civil rights since the mid 60s. No doubt the South has improved since then but it has a long way to go. I don’t know which South you are living in or if you just have your head in the sand but racism is alive and wide spread in the South. I hear it everyday.

Penny Starr

So do I. Being polite in public is no sign racism is gone…the same people holding those doors and saying “yes ma’am/sir” are still calling people of color the “N” word as soon as they’re out of their company and are full of “they’re no good/wouldn’t have em in MY house”. Even some white southerners who have people of color in their families are continually disparaging them while doting on the children who may result from this union. The hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance is stunning.

Michael Ellis

Most of the wealthy (note that I said ‘most’ and not ‘all’) become wealthy by exploiting the poor in some way. Either keeping their wages at an absurdly low level to increase their profits, keeping their education down by making it cost too much or (in the case of living in an impoverished area or ‘the ghetto’ helping ensure that the people are kept at a sub standard life style by many different means (drugs, prostitution, alcohol, violence, lack of police support, lack of growth, job accessibility, solid education etc…). Even rich people with ‘old money’, money that their great grand parents earned was most likely earned from the backs of slave labor or any other number of things that helped them step on someone else’s back.

Someone who is wealthy wants people who are of lower intelligence, standard of living, financial/educational accessibility to be around because those people are what are called “pliable”.

It’s easy to take advantage of the dumb or misinformed / undereducated.

It’s easy to exploit someone who cannot pay their bills (desperate people have been known to render desperate deeds)

it’s easy to give dreams of glory and leisure to someone and string them along to ‘one day’ have the life of _______(enter celebrity, artist, athlete or anyone above the social medium status …even Rebecca Black in the right social circles) and you can get them to do most anything for you. Even kill.

Michael Ellis

@633cc806a88243432be79aec4fae84a6:disqus
I was raised in Seattle Washington and moved to North Carolina in 2008. In the 5 years I’ve lived in NC I’ve seen more blatant and subtle racism than I saw in my 21 years in the Washington/California/Utah.

I work with an obvious Russian gal (We work in insurance and we meet a lot of people on a daily/weekly basis, because it’s face to face sales, not phone but i digress) with noticeable Russian accent (she speaks Russian and English fluently) and some people are so naive or uneducated, maybe that they ask her 9-10 if she “is a Mexican” or ” if her accent is Mexican”.
Despite the fact that a person can’t have a “Mexican” accent
She has no features that would make anyone think she is of Hispanic descent. I have no idea where in the south you are saying you are but I’ve been to TN, SC, LA and with the exception of SC (i’ve rarely worked in SC and really only frequented Greeneville when i was there) The other states were completely blatant and open about their racism.

I will say, it’s not anywhere near as bad as I thought it’d be before I moved here, but it’s definitely in need of great improvement.

Rom Ragg

Trust me…SC is as overtly racist as it gets. Lived there for 15 years, and the lines in the sand are irrefutable.

JerseyJoe

I’m sure there is more to the story, but from what you have said I don’t consider someone asking someone else where they are from as racist. If asked in a demeaning manner that is another thing.

One thing I would point out is that in the South there is more interaction with the “races”.because there is a substantially higher percentage of minority groups in the South than in the North which gives more occasion for there to be disagreements. When I lived outside Minneapolis I would go weeks without seeing a black person. It is completely different in the South.

Michael Ellis

You’re right JerseyJoe, asking where someone is from is not racist. But it’s the manner in how they ask (some ask out of pure curiosity and you can tell but more will ask out of malicious ignorance). It’s kind of like if a southern white male were to be speaking to a black male of the same age and he refers to him as “boy” like “why are you in this neighborhood boy” it’s the complete lack of respect and an implication (especially during times of slavery and segregation) of being lower standing/importance/value and of those sorts. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s just something that you can tell. It’s kind of like when you KNOW your mother-in-law or Father-in-law doesn’t like you (for little to no reason or good reason) even though they’ve never said it and your significant other is saying “noooo, they love youu!” You can just feel it.

There have also been cases where families that were supposed to be seen(because they have a policy with us and our job is to review with them and answer any of their questions) wouldn’t allow anyone ‘not white’ see them or some of our agents that are black work in a certain area (i was not here for these cases since we don’t all work in the same area, I’ve just been told of the few occasions). Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that kind of thing has happened in Washington, California and many other heavily populated states where there are a number of ethnicities.

Granted it is insurance and most people think insurance salespeople are already annoying and unwanted. But when

JohnThorpe

Oh, that’s rich. So Conservatives in the south want more propriety in society? That’s why the call the President a N***** and depict him as a monkey on their signs? Or why they refer to him as traitor (very respectful!) or not even an American?

Does Republican niceness extend anywhere else? :Last I saw, your elected officials were running on a platform to bankrupt the middle class, kill off the poor, and let rapists do what nature intended them to do. Never thought I’d see one political party come out as pro-rape; yet there you were, with multiple candidates taking stands with rapists.

Here’s a pro tip. Don’t want to be called a racist? Don’t act like a fucking racist. Take down the confederate flags. Quit using the N word every time the president does something you don’t like. Quit trying to make it harder for minorities to vote. Quit selectively enforcing laws so that blacks go to jail more often, and for much longer, than whites for the same crimes.

And your political arguments? They’re crap.

You can’t say you’re for a balanced budget after cheering on Bush for eight years. The man destroyed the Clinton surplus in record time, and he did so by enacting the policies you morons still support.

You can’t say you support the Constitution after all the Patriot Act/anti-“terrorism” laws you dipshits rammed through Congress.

You can’t put two wars on the credit card (with the profits going to the vice president’s company!) and then pretend to be anti-corruption and for small government and capitalism. Bro, that’s as fascist as it gets: government handouts to the vice-president’s business while fighting for oil control, which just happens to be the president’s family business.

You’re a joke. Your entire philosophy is a joke. It’s a sham — a convenient line of bullshit you throw out whenever someone wants to spend tax dollars on something you don’t like. But as soon as your party gets into power, you all throw as much coke onto strippers asses as you can, snort it up, and we all wake up 8 years later wondering what happened to our surplus, our social programs, our national pride, and when you start another useless war, our young people.

Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and never, ever come here again.

Bev Richardson

Bravo!

JerseyJoe

I hope everyone hears what you are. You are displaying no sense of humanity towards another individual simply because you disagree with his experience. And, yet you are the one that throw around terms like fascism. And, the ugly life you must live as you call others “dipsh—“, pro-rape, etc. and describe the GOP using “coke on strippers asses”, “kill off the poor”, etc. Are you a proud liberal? Are other liberals proud of you?

You use the same old staid lines. I am an educated man who has studied the issues. There is no perfect party, but of the two main parties there is no doubt that the GOP supports the Founding and the Constitution more than the Dems. I started to respond to each of your points because I disagree with them by and large, but you would respond in the same manner and I frankly don’t think it helpful. Yours is not a logical approach and until you recognize that I think you will continue to react in an ugly and demeaning way. I hope it is recognized for what it is.

DoctorButler

He’s not just “throwing terms around”. These are fairly accurate observations of the GOP’s political behaviors.

And I hope you can see the irony in you chastising someone for ad hominem, and then relying on ad hominem more then they did in the first place.

JerseyJoe

Actually I am not utilizing ad hominem as I am criticizing his arguments and his tone. He gives no references and doesn’t present an argument, resorting merely to name calling, vulgarity, and baseless accusations. It is this that I am objecting to. I am not applying presumptions merely because he is a liberal, I am basing it on his actual argument. That is not ad hominem.

Penny Starr

An educated man should surely realize the difference between the statements in question being
A) the reasons southerners vote GOP

and

B)the excuse southerners use to prove the party for whom they vote is not racist.

The second is what the author argued, whether it’s what some readers want to believe or not.

“there are two facts you’ll almost always hear conservatives use to counter the belief that their party is full of racism”

Signed, a southerner, born and raised…and proud liberal.

grumblemoo

Maybe following the Constitution isn’t the answer. The Constitution was a document written that was meant to be replaced quickly. It has many outdated pieces, and we can’t keep basing our opinions solely on it. In much of the South, the Bible is the book that is followed strictly, but for some of the educated people, the Constitution is your Bible. If you really feel it’s necessary to follow the Constitution, and the Founding Fathers’ ideas, then scrap it. That is what they wanted. Very few people were proud of how the document turned out, and almost everybody was ready to change it immediately.

Chuck Reed

You are recognized for who/what you are!
In what way is the GOP more centered on the constitution and our “founding”, I am guessing you meant “founding fathers”?
Show me anywhere in the Constitution where programs such as Social Security and Obamacare are anti American! You show me where it’s OK to use tax money on Church based programs such as education and I’ll point to the Thomas Jefferson letter to the Danbury Ministers where the author himself used the term “Separation of Church and State” 9google it)
Show me in the Constitution where the programs for the poor are unAmerican!
I know what you hear on Fox, I want to you explain to me the exact articles the Democratic party go against just to show you they don’t really tell you any facts, they just tell you the same thing over and over and over and what you hear is, “the Dems dont abide by the constitution and have gone away from our founding fathers vision”. Now i know that’s what you hear, that’s exactly what you said. Well tell me exactly how!

DoctorButler

Thank you. Everyone should see this, and learn to open their fucking eyes.

Sam I-Am

Hi John? You have 10 high-fives! & Taken me to school – If F-word is OK why didn’t you use N-word? I like your being respectful to Race & not respectful with a F-ing hateful racist. You & Kenny speak for me! Even This: (JerseyJoe -to- WealthyElite) was just a schmoozing quasi agreement worshiping of the Rich & the Dogma of false Values, Principles, Capitalism, Class, Republican Cult etc. And to top it all of, he holds the moral high ground of the Religious Riech, I mean Right. I encourage this Jersey Redneck Racist to STOP. Stop embracing Guns & Bible & Rich. Get your Bible & Read it for once. Values & Principles of Jesus in the Gospel of St Matthews. But you won’t do that because Jesus is totally oposite to the Cult of Republicanism. So John is dead-on! Both your political, religious & principles of Redneckism & Cult of the TeaBagging Republicanism is just so much BS. But please do read Jesus.

Chuck Reed

I have heard the “Republican religious cult” also called “the Republican Jesus”, both are applicable. I heard a person ranting and raving at the store about how foodstamps were the work of the devil and entitlement programs are looked upon by Jesus as enslaving people. This guy and others like him sincerely believe this propaganda bull crap, I always try to say, “Jesus fed the hungry and healed the sick” when I hear this bull to try to remind them that the Republican Jesus is a false profit (play on words) that is opposite of the real Jesus. This argument holds whether you personally are a believer or not as long as they believe.
The real Jesus would be a modern day Democrat and most likely he would be crucified by Republicans all over again

Sams__Computer

Posting Here very good from Non-Believers who unknowingly are following Jesus exact behaviors – And the TRUE-Jesus Christ followers who follow actual Bible Scripture of how Jesus asks us all to behave both with each other & collectively among Countries.

I’m encouraging Everyone here – Of all stripes – To do what I’ve done if possible. It is so very rewarding when you get involved, participate join OfA & Vote. Such as – Here’s what happened when I went to a Christian-Wrong Church that I wanted to visit for years.

Go to their Fellowship and (If you can stay cool under fire) Show them with their own Bible Scripture the real & true Jesus Christ. You don’t even have to be Christian to do this. After 3 fellowships they were so fed up with the truth & hated me so much that at the beginning of our 4th meeting they said “If anyone here has issues with the bible we ask you to leave right now. Again, I stood up for the true values of Jesus on that day too.

Then on 5th Fellowship 4 of them stood up & their spokesman said all their Cult Republican Rules. Scientist today are Christians, but they said if I think the Earth & Universe are not 6000 years old, then just Get-Out right now. As I walked out the door I shared just one thought with them – “Jesus knows when Y’all are Good or Bad, Jesus would not do this to me – He’s watching you 24/7.

Results: Lots of people dropped out – Their leaders were desperately apologetic & asked me to please come back. I’m going to other Churches now.
Get Involved & A good day to All –

Codycote

That is saying it all in a nutshell. Not sure I’m crazy about the wording (the F word, for example) but aside from that, I’ve seldom read anyone put it more succinctly. Especially what you wrote about the wars on the credit card! And yet today you see all the Bush fans in Congress whining about the debit limit, as if it wasn’t their hero who is responsible. Utterly disgusting! But the most disgusting thing is how otherwise completely rational people have bought in to their strategy, consistently voting against their own best interests and ignoring the fact that the Republican policies of the last (at least) 35 years has caused the whole downfall in the first place. Bravo to you for summing it up so concisely!

Chuck Reed

Their propaganda is very very effective, we can only hope another Glenn Beck comes along, Fox still haven’t recovered from the viewers he lost them. Fox was in serious decline from the more moderate and intelligent viewers and they were jumping ship so they canned him.

teresa

Well said

Chuck Reed

“Southerners simply want the Constitution to be followed. They want a
balanced budget. They demand the Bill of Rights be held dear.”

Only the parts they agree with and according to most southern (R)’s some articles have more authority than others. I am a southerner and although we are strictly controlled by (R) at the state level we do vote Democratic Pres.

When you say “right thinking” I am certain you refer to any uncle tom blacks that pander to the baggers and other ultra conservatives that of course are the “right” ones for you and your kind.

Sam I-Am

Wealthyelite • 9 hours ago
−

The real issue is one of class, not race. The rich want the poor to keep fighting amongst themselves over meaningless things, like racial differences.

Of Black Race, I’m Not So NOW: Both Race & Class are REAL ISSUES. We don’t have to be abused like Obama & Black Americans to know that simple fact. If you need objective indisputable evidence, paint your skin black, red, brown, yellow, or Jewish, or Arab etc. etc. Then try moving to an all white community, or try marrying a white, or try hailing a cab in New York City but mostly an issue in the Southern States. I used to be a disgusting racist there. I’m not anymore but racisms are alive & well today in America.

NOW – The Rich Want What? Hey, they’ve already won the Class war because of Republicans over the last 50 years. The 1% wealthy & both Rich & Poor Republicans don’t give a Damn if we’re (fighting or loving ourselves.) They want many things based on – Greed for Republican Control of America – Greed for Money & Power – Greed to Stop certain groups & certain RACES FROM VOTING – SUCH AS: Republicans have passed Laws to stop our Voting Rights – Republicans are stopping – Young Millennials & College Kids, Women, Hispanics, Blacks, Gays, Jews, Arabs, Senior Citizens – But I need not go on at this point.

I understand that some aren’t aware of all issues. I just wish SOME would not reduce Real & Meaningful Issues to being, Quote – NOT REAL & MEANINGLESS. All issues are Real and they all Mean a lot to all the Democrats in our fantastic Country – May America Be Blessed! -Take Good Care of Yourselves –

Murasaki

You missed the point. He’s saying that race shouldn’t be an issue. That the disenfranchised of every color should look to the puppet masters who keep them fighting over scraps. We should realize that the color of our skin is not the real difference between us. But please, go ahead and rant about a post you didn’t even read properly.

Kathy

thank you.

Eustace Cromartie

And you missed his point! So many of you have. Race is just as much an issue as class, but people on both sides ignore that.

Fully472

Until people accept that we all emigrated from the continent of Africa (DNA info thru NatGeo DNA project still have yet to find ONE example of a person who does not trace back to an original tribe in Africa after a decade of collecting them by the tens of thousands in every country) and that we are one race, the human one, we will continue to be used by those people who already know this but use our lack of evolution against us for their own gain. In order for us to accept this, all people (even the ones who’s holy books state that they are originally from the middle east, they’re not) are going to have to let go of religions and other suspicions and superstitions and accept the medically proven fact that we are all the same, only changed slightly through evolution by the different factors of the regions we emigrated to over many generations. There are no races, there are only extractions of the same one: homosapien. That is a proven fact.

lessthantolerant

What an asinine position to state.

Frank Mazuca

you are so right….the ruling class can divide the middle class and the poor, the black and the white, the union and non-union and then they win and we all lose.

suburbancuurmudgeon

Yeah, but some of the disenfranchised are complicit in their own demise…I’m looking at you, Kansas.

The Green Devilish One

You’re onto something. Racism is scapegoating. If you’re white and your life sucks and your job pays you crap, it must be because of affirmative action, that somebody else is getting your piece of the pie because they’re black, or pieces of your pie are being taken away to give to lazy crack-smoking darkies who blow YOUR hard-earned money on lobster, iphones, and Cadillacs. People are just dumb enough to believe this garbage and too lazy to look into the real truth, that the companies are making trillions of dollars and are hiding the money overseas to starve our government’s tax coffers and then blaming the shortfall- again- on lazy welfare cheats, so then we get the Walmart-American Teabaggers marching around in silly hats endorsing “white pride”, as if this will suddenly fix all our problems.

balance

This. So very much this!

Catehess7

Don’t forget the constant offshoring/outsourcing from areas most dependent upon those jobs that historically enabled movement from poverty to middle class. Don’t forget the incessant need to hide how in these SAME areas so lacking in job opportunities there is such a ready availability of guns and drugs yet the most pressing legislative concerns are around abortion and same sex marriage. I wonder how that’s all connected…???

adcbeast

Wealthyelite INOCRRECT …. the political shifts occurred along racial lines so the author is correct

GjRob

The real issue IS race and class.

Kathy

naahh! I thought so too, but RACISM is still very much alive. Just look how they treat Obama. NO matter how much he tries to be an Uncle Tom!

Meemaw60

That’s exactly right. The heads of the conservative party, the rich and the corporations, are just using things like race, homophobia, and religious differences to keep uninformed people from voting for democrats. That’s also why they are so against education they can’t control, because with an educated populace, it is so much harder to pull the wool over their eyes.

Eustace Cromartie

You must surly be white! No minority would say anything as foolish as that.

Rose

Race is undeniably a part of it…

dbee

White supremacy relative to blacks is often stronger than class distinctions in the U.S. But you are correct, outside of that one distinction, generally, it is about class.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

The Rich dont want anything but more federal contracts & bigger govt. because it takes the legs out of small businessman and keeps the poor ..in poverty as proven time & again

That us what most whites who have enjoyed the fruits of racism say in an attempt to absolve themselves of any responsibility for it’s continuation.

Amerigo Nutland

Like Nineteen84, The Proles are the Dems voting base, The Outer Class are the bureaucrats and conscious enablers, The Inner Class are the Global bankers and Elite bureaucrats.
Orwell realized the insanity of liberal socialism, like most sane and logical people with a sense of integrity do. The common ignorant liberal Democrat is what enables the insanity to exist, unknowingly or not.

David Charles Randall

It’s always a matter of class. It’s just that in our “shining city on a hill” class is still easy to assume at 50 feet away

John Nixdorf

he’s not saying racial equality is meaningless, he’s saying racial differences are meaningless, and the people who try to get the poor and middle class to focus on race differences instead of economic differences are trying to rob us blind.

Darrin Freeman

it amazes me that very few realize this fact….the GOP would be done if all working class were to realize this and unite !

Kaiyla Bradford

You think the GOP is the only one to be done?

Chuck Reed

Yes

balance

Only yes if the corruption in the Democratic party went away, too. I think it’s more likely we’d rework government and ditch parties altogether if we had a revolution big enough to rout the stratified class system.

MiMg

As some of the founding fathers said, it’s not ideal to have “parties” but how else would we run the government? It costs too much and would take too much of everyone’s time to have to have an “election” where people vote on EACH political issue of the day all year round! Basically where things are now, if you care about PEOPLE you vote DEMOCRAT if you care about MONEY you vote Republican

It simply boils down to the us vs them and the easiest way for a lazy bigot to identify them is by skin color. Most bigots, I assume, are dysfunctional in most relationships. It permeates all levels of society. It is institutionalized in our forensic system. The haters really lack empathy for most others. It is a root cause of the vitriolic personal attacks on our President.

Kaiyla Bradford

I can care less about his color or religion, heck I’d elect a Satanist if they were to do the job. However, Obama deserves whatever he gets for passing stupid laws, extending stupid bills, and following the same general policies that Bush did. NDAA, Patriot Act, Healthcare Reform, Guantanamo Bay, getting us involved in more pointless wars, need I go on? Sure, he ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and supports ending DOMA (which was passed by Clinton btw), but he bails out CEOs and authorizes attacks on other sovereign nations when we obviously don’t need to be there. Focus on the US, and everything else will work out in the end.

Chuck Reed

What stupid law did Obama pass that wasn’t put in front of him by the GOP led Congress?
Obama did extend the bush Patriot act.
Bailout passed by Bush.
What war did Obama start? (your lying)
The Republicans first complained he did nothing in lybia, then the GOP complained he took to long to do anything in Lybia and now they say he went to war without authorization,

The truth about libya, Obama took out the terrorist dictator of Libya and supported the rebels for the cost of -O- American lives and for only a few million, compared to Bushs multi trillion war in iraq we are still trying to wind down.
Healthcare reform? he did exactly what he said he would do when running for office, it’s what people wanted and its already saving millions unless you listen to Fox where they still say it’s going to cost trillions extra even though the current and projected numbers call that statement a complete “pants-on-fire” lie.
Got anything else? Maybe tell me how the Benghazi scandal was about fox lying and the GOP leaders intentionally NOT releasing information they knew would clear him!
How about the IRS scandal that also had nothing to do with Obama but did Prove again information was dribbled out slowly dragging it on and when released it completely cleared Obama that it was a Republican that actually held up the paperwork.

Kaiyla Bradford

The truth about healthcare reform: If you as an individual do not have health insurance you will be fined. If you have a job where you have to choose between food and bills or insurance, which would you choose? Already the costs of insurance is going up. If my company didn’t provide me with decent coverage I’m looking at 400 a month or being fined for not having insurance. I’d choose the fine because I can’t afford 400 a month.

As for the laws he passed, NDAA for example, stinks of Bush. He could have vetoed it, but he didn’t. When he passed it, and extended the patriot act, he lost my vote. And those two things were the deciding factors of my choosing not to support him.

Chuck Reed

Because so many use the emergency room rather then a Dr healthcare costs are far too high so the Government will save money providing insurance to go to a Dr office instead.
If you are poor and cant afford insurance chances are you will go to emergency room for care so there are the savings. People who really can’t afford insurance as you say will have it provided for you with costs covered by savings over the poor going to the hospital and also people who get regular check ups are healthier so do not need expensive emergency care.

MiMg

You don’t seem to get it, EVERYONE NEEDS HEALTH INSURANCE because we ALL GET SICK, and WITHOUT NOTICE! Repubs want to LOWER the Min Wage, Dems want to RAISE it, Repubs want to DECREASE funding to Social Security and Medicare, Democrats want to RAISE it, Democrats CREATED and vote FOR: Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, Family Medical Leave, College Grants, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc, Republicans voted AGAINST ALL of those programs which means DEMOCRATS GOOD, REPUBLICANS BAD!

Kaiyla Bradford

Wrong. I am all for a healthcare system that Canada has. This “ObamaCare” is nothing of the sort. In fact, it’s a slap in the face to anyone that wants healthcare. Here’s the facts I lay before you, I have insurance. My premium has almost doubled in the past year and they’re thinking of charging us females more because we’re “higher risk” because they can’t deny me if I were to get pregnant. The costs are now so high I’m thinking of dropping my insurance so I’ll pay the fine instead because the cost per year is more than the total cost me paying cash for the office visits and the fine an individual has to pay for not carrying insurance. No, I do not support “ObamaCare”. I support healthcare that Canada has, I support unions, I support social programs, I support public education, I support the USPS, I support our EMS, Firefighters, and Police Officers, I support public libraries, I support many things. I am a socialist, not a capitalist like the republicrat party. Welcome to the Plutocratic Oligarchy of America where the politicians are paid off to do what the corporations want, to pass bills that they want passed, to block bills they don’t want blocked, to get huge kickbacks for slush funds and vote buying schemes, and to ram a tree trunk up our butts and have us tell then we want it harder. That is our country. It’s rotten from the core, and we’re in such bad financial straits because we no longer do anything because the corporations run the machine which forces politicians to wage one war after another to divert attention from the fact the entire infrastructure is in imminent collapse. I give it 5 years on the outside as long as the republicrats are still running the show with corporations buying the politicians off.

MiMg

you are WRONG! Repubs want to LOWER the Min Wage, Dems want to RAISE it, Repubs want to DECREASE funding to Social Security and Medicare, Democrats want to RAISE it, Democrats CREATED and vote FOR: Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, Family Medical Leave, College Grants, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc, Republicans voted AGAINST ALL of those programs which means DEMOCRATS GOOD, REPUBLICANS BAD!

Kaiyla Bradford

What does this have to do with what I said about racism? And everything I said here was true, do your research before you go off half cocked on someone who is a socialist. I do not support the republicans nor do I support the democrats. And what I said here is true, Obama in Syria now? What was it a month ago, Libya? Iran? Iraq? He said he’d close guantanamo and it’s still open. Then he passes the NDAA bill which is an expansion of power with the Patriot Act. Come on, this is plain ridiculous. Show me where they are really different from one another, all I see is the same clones in both parties. Sure, the rhetoric is all fine but the fact is they aren’t. The last 33 years of presidents have taken away our rights and privileges I hold dear. The last 33 years of presidents have deregulated the insurance market, stock market, financial sector, education by validation whatever that means, and finally the clincher is people are too blind to see the truth for what it really is. Heck, thanks to these Presidents our manufacturing is in ruins and we’re barely able to feed ourselves. I’d say burn the system and start fresh, but what to replace the system with?

Republican are frequently deluded about real history try mentioning Hitler as Christian and Lincoln as Agnostic/Atheist Bahahahahhaaa

Dede

Ayn Rand thought people who believed in God were insane and mocked them.

Kaiyla Bradford

I like her a lot

DoctorButler

Ayn Rand is where the GOP draws their values from. Rand is a liar and her body of work all horseshit.

teresa

agreed

Chuck Reed

She was a fiction writer! She wrote what sold!
The baggers hero is a freakin fiction writer and they brag about it. Didn’t take Rand Paul to distance himself after he found out she was an atheist, under the bus she went! LOL

Kaiyla Bradford

Aye, but what she did write was true fiction.. Just like Orwell did with the book 1984 and then another by Bradbury about Farehnheit 451. While these books are all fiction, look how close to the truth they are when compared to the reality TV shows today.

Melania Gulley

and yet Paul ryan.. a Catholic likes her.. scary

Kaiyla Bradford

Which proves that atheists have our best interests and Christians are the real evil people. Don’t they worship the same god as the ‘evil’ Muslims? I have nothing against Jesus mind you, But I have everything against this god person that murders babies because he’s god and wants other nations to fear him.

JerseyJoe

Which Christian principles was Hitler following again? Lincoln was a doubter at times, but he was a praying doubter even then. But, what does a label matter anyway? You can put them on and pull them off. I say I am liberal democrat but my principles lie with the Founders and I would vote for a Republican in favor of almost any democrat. See self-labeling is not helpful.

Ernest Crunkleton

Hey jersey joe, hitler was a hardcore christian…..

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” –Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

“The best characterization is provided by the product of this
religious education, the Jew himself. His life is only of this world, and his spirit is inwardly as alien to true Christianity as his nature two thousand years previous was to the great founder of the new doctrine. Of course, the latter made no secret of his attitude toward the Jewish people, and when necessary he even took the whip to drive
from the temple of the Lord this adversary of all humanity, who then as always saw in religion nothing but an instrument for his business existence. In return, Christ was nailed to the cross, while our present- day party Christians debase themselves to begging for Jewish votes at elections and later try to arrange political swindles with atheistic Jewish parties– and this against their own nation.”–Adolf
Hitler (Mein Kampf)

JerseyJoe

You are not a Christian merely by proclaiming that whatever path you place yourself on is the work of the Lord, He was not a Christian. He was a hate-filled National Socialist megalomaniac.

Baaly

By that token, neither are any of the GOP/Teabaggers who so faithfully proclaim to act in relation to their xtian beliefs.

Ernest Crunkleton

by that logic Satan was never an angel either.

Kenny Shackleford

“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”

John Adams

Kaiyla Bradford

I have met ignorance and racism everywhere. Let’s not kid ourselves about the parties, because I have seen it on both sides. After all, who allows the racial profiling of Muslims in New York? And then I see blue states like California passing prop 8… Sorry, but the parties are meaningless. I mean, I’m a socialist after all and at first I was applauding Obama for his healthcare reform, until I saw it addressed nothing, makes insurance more costly, and makes the little people who can’t afford insurance choose between a hefty fine or going hungry. Sorry, I’m just not pleased when a democrat says I’m better than the republican because “Insert quote here” or republican saying the same thing. You want to be better? Follow the darn constitution. And actually work together for the betterment of all. Not just a select few. The two major parties are both to blame. They are equally at fault. And until you admit to that and actually do something that helps others, I don’t want to hear about what party is more racist.

DownriverDem

Hey, you are clueless about who your own country is. Sad.

Kaiyla Bradford

How am I clueless?

Bruce Brewer

Awesome post Kaiyla! People can’t get past “Democrat Good” and “Republican Bad”. Obama told us all how insurance companies were bad and then pushed a bill forcing people to buy insurance from those same companies. What’s next? Bloomberg forcing people to buy Coca Cola?

MiMg

Repubs want to LOWER the Min Wage, Dems want to RAISE it, Repubs want to DECREASE funding to Social Security and Medicare, Democrats want to RAISE it, Democrats CREATED and vote FOR: Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, Family Medical Leave, College Grants, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc, Republicans voted AGAINST ALL of those programs which means DEMOCRATS GOOD, REPUBLICANS BAD!

MiMg

No offense, but..GET A CLUE! All you have to do is know each party’s PLATFORM and what they REPRESENT! EVERYONE knows that DEMOCRATS have ALWAYS been for GAY RIGHTS! Just because Republicans and Independents voted for Prop 8 does NOT mean Democrats had ANYTHING to do with it!

Ed Harrell

the other thing you fail to mention, is that all those Dixiecrats changed parties.

Race;
Noun
Anthropology
a.
any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.
b.
an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, especially formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups.
c.
a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans.
Blood groups
Phenotype Genotype
A AA or AO
B BB or BO
AB AB
O OO

adjective
11.
of or pertaining to the races of humankind.

We are all human we share the same 23 chromosome DNA please stop mislabeling the issue. It’s clearly bigotry this article is talking about.

Bigotry

1.
stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.
2.
the actions, beliefs, prejudices, etc., of a bigot.

Ernest Crunkleton

There is no B or C. there is more physical and genetic variation within supposedly seperate racial groups than between them.

No b or c what? Blood type? If so you would be incorrect as there is no C its O, and my blood type is B-

Ernest Crunkleton

Your definitions, no genetic markers have been discovered that are exclusive to any one region of the world, and despite our ancestors attempts to divide people into groups based on appearance, no real divide exists

Jim Hahn

There are deeper roots in the shift than Nixon and racism. The Republican Party of Lincoln also abandoned both its support for “conservation” and opposition to corporate monopolies that were also hallmarks of the party in the late 1800’s. With this wholesale turning away from core values, the party’s standard-bearer and popular young gun, Teddy Roosevelt, left the party to run as a Progressive. By the time we get to Nixon’s Southern Strategy – the party was morally bankrupt and without any underpinning. Reagan’s only hope was to make people afraid and wrap himself in the flag defender’s role, as well as to further sell out American values by pandering to religious extremists who successfully blurred their lack of policy with a masterful manipulation of vocabulary (family values, pro-life, Morning in America) during a time when the economy was weak, people were struggling, and a “cowboy” mythology gave hope to desperate people. All the facts on jobs, economic success, stock market bulls, inclusiveness of all Americans, etc. overwhelmingly favor today’s Democrats. Though they are far from perfect, the Democratic Party is where shared success for a prosperous nation can best be realized.

jim

How utterly pathetic on your part.

jim

This is the stupidest bunch of inaccurate trash I’ve ever read. I love how you leave out how more Republicans voted for civil rights in 1964 than Democrats. You also fail to mention how Democrats fought against civil rights for a century. Even after 1964 white southern racists continued to vote for Democrats for two decades.

You’re either a liar or you’re ignorant of history.

JohnThorpe

I think you missed the entire point. Which I guess makes since. 9th grade was too hard for you?

The point is that the racist morons left the Democratic Party and are now the base of the Republican Party. Republicans claiming civil rights as an issue is ludicrous.

Those Republicans are all Democrats now — and if they hadn’t left, you tea party dipshits would have kicked them out by now. Remember the RINOs? Those were the good guys. You sent them right over to the Democrats. In exchange, we gave you all the racist fucks in the south. Nice trade there. I think the Sox got more for Babe Ruth back in the day.

MiMg

WRONG IDIOT

jim

The vast majority of Dixiecrats remained Democrats. That’s a fact.

MiMg

LIAR

Sam I-Am

Allen Clifton – Your On Target Dead Center – And today racism is alive & well all across our great Country. If Republicans have their way – I don’t think it will ever die completely – As a famous man from Texas once said “You can not change hearts and minds” President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I’m a Texan so I understand what Ike is saying – You See, it’s very carefully & brutally taught from a very early age – And still today I have remnants of racisms lurking in my own DNA – I quickly push it away but I do know that “Ike” was wrong. I have changed my Heart of Hearts & my strongest mind.

MiMg

So even though you are from Texas you are for Affirmative Action, NOT for Voter Suppression, FOR Gay Rights, For allowing atleast SOME types of abortion? Because the BIGGEST Haters are because of race, sexual orientation, gender, class, etc.

Nakedly Sane

If you are looking for a party that embraces equality join the Libertarian party.

Seriously folks, the Democrats are interested in keeping blacks a permanent underclass, pinned their by own dependency on the government and Democrats to give them an unearned existence, though they claim they are for the advancement of blacks and all races they aren’t. They lie. By promising handouts they ensure their seats in Congress.

The Republicans are equally statists and are interested in pushing their own big government agenda though they claim they are for limited government. They lie.

John

I’d rather drink urine laced with arsenic than align myself with the Libertarian Party. The Cult of Rand is nothing more than a bunch of somewhat moderate conservatives who are ashamed to call themselves Republican but claim to be too rich to be labeled Democrat. Yeah, Libertarians are all in for the fight for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and what have you, but you feel the oppressor should be allowed to oppress the oppressed (example: support gay marriage but stay silent when Pat Robertson opens his mouth). And since you want to talk handouts, Libertarians are gung ho about the existence of corporate welfare. Hypocrisy much? Fuck the LOLibertarian and Republican’t parties!

MiMg

To be clear, Rand and Ron Paul are RIGHT INLINE with ALL Republicans for being HOMOPHOBIC, not to mention RACIST! They are BOTH on the SAME PAGE on Social Issues as ALL Repubs are!

JohnThorpe

I’ve seen Thunderdome and I’ve seen Somalia. I think I’d prefer we pay taxes and have a functioning government, society, and social safety net.

MiMg

You CLEARLY do NOT follow the Libertarians very closely. Both Ron Paul and Rand Paul have either been QUOTED saying RACIST things or have HIRED RACISTS to RUN their CAMPAIGNS! You are SO RACIST, I don’t know where to begin! JUST by saying BLACKS are ALL on Welfare is COMPLETELY RACIST!

Darcy Jackson

There is no source sited for the quote above, am I to assume that was President Nixon?

In the day was La Palanca, the switch on the voting machine that the Spanish-surnamed (Hispanic/Latino) registered voter pulled to mark the ballot FOR all the candidates of one party… all Republicans … all Democrats. Grassroots organization was like the lawn at a perpetual care cemetary – beautiful, green and vibrant. People turned out for the candidate rallies, the League of Women Voter events, the block-walks, and Election Day. People turned in their Absentee Ballot … or… they went to the polling place and cast their vote. What is the condition, prior to the upcoming election, of the grassroots organizations for the Republican and the Democrat parties in your town.

LeeAnn Gerleman

After the Cheerios commercial came out, I saw the bigotry just as much as before. When Obama became POTUS, I was proud of my country for electing him president. But soon discovered that the old bigotry was still there, whether its over a Commercial or in our government. A black guy is allright in government except not as President. And they have been trying to get rid of him ever since.

The reason the white southerns went to the Democrats was the treatment of the south by the reconstruction Republicans who wanted to punish the south. After Lincoln’s death they went at it with a vengence. They forced the humilation of the southerners by getting freed slaves elected in state legislatures and the carpetbaggers helped them. This is why the KKK was established, to strike back. Had Lincoln not been murdered this whole era would have not happened and 100 years of punishing the negroes, in the south, for the Republicans deeds would never have happened. It still amazes me how any southerner can vote Republican.

Racism is not only a white thing there’s alot of racism in all races. when we realize it not just a white black thing we will start to overcome it. Until we realize hate is ramped in all races we will be stuck in it.

Lori

You are leaving out the whole fact however, that the sole reason the Democrats pushed the equality act, was “So those niggers will always vote for us”…

both parties are dispicable

MiMg

Just using that word makes you one of the biggest racists in here! you CANT use that word EVER! And what you said was a CROCK anyway! There is a HUGE difference between the parties, Repubs ONLY care about MONEY and ONLY care about giving THE RICH TAX CUTS!

Ya, LOTS of people (NOT!) are going to listen to YOU after you tell them to kill themselves just because they don’t AGREE with you!

William Woodburn

Good history reminder!

mavrick

I do believe that Lincoln, would be surprise and disappointed that we have not been able to over come these racial divide. Clearly the Republican party is catering to right wing , religious , T-bagger , Anti-Government fringe of society and the filthy rich .

Memeremalek

Thanks. It all makes sense now. Oops … no, not exactly. WHY racism on any side is still alive & thrives is just baffling to me. Especially coming from the religocrats. Who forget …. “All God’s children are created equal”.

Pat

I do not hate President Obama because he is black. He is of both races, white and black. The destruction of our country is not a racial issue. Sending arms to Syrian and Egyptian rebels is not a racial issue. Continued attacks on our Bill of Rights is not a racial issue. Spending exorbitant amounts of money on vacations and parties is not a racial issue. Closing the White House (OUR HOUSE) to public tours then spending a million dollars on a family vacation around the world and pissing off heads of state and members of the government in the countries he is visiting is not a racial issue. World leaders who use to be our allies and some that never have been calling for his trial for war crimes is not a racial issue. The only thing that is a racial issue is the constant bickering over everything being a racial issue!

Sherri G

Your comment is soooo full of B.S.!! He has taken LESS VACATION DAYS than the last 3 presidents at this time in office. He only has parties for heads of state and actually, he has calmed tensions among allies in the last (5) years so we are not the world bully of the Bush eras.
You claim bill of rights violations but I say BULL. THE Repugs/Teapurds/American Taliban has failed in its duty to serve the people and run this country in bipartisanship because they HATE who was elected TWICE against their White, Conservative male candidates and have sworn to destroy him even if it means taking the whole nation with him. They are the traitors and dictators of restrictive and discriminatory voting rights laws, creating “Christian” Sharia Law with all the restrictions on WOMEN’S RIGHTS and tearing apart the Middle Class.

MiMg

Wow, you bought all the Repub talking points were selling, lock, stock, and barrel! Accusing the president of NOT being “one of us” IS being RACIST! Accusing the president of NOT being BORN here IS RACIST!

teresa

Disgusting is about all I can say… idiots

mcorps

Class is what this is all about. Race enters the equation peripherally. Do any of you really believe there are vast numbers of “Repubs” who would not enjoy dinner with a man like Colin Powell? The same people would run from a social encounter with rapper “Big Nasty Turd”. People look at the internet and see videos of 100 teens beating someone for their phone. We see videos of Chicago murder marathon. We see a gang destroying the interior of a restaurant. What do these and a host of other videos have in common? The participants are African American. To be truly color blind would mean we couldn’t draw conclusions from observation. That is not going to happen. People will continue to draw conclusions, sometimes incorrect conclusions, and will continue to make social friends based on class and culture. I don’t know anyone who chooses other people based on race alone.

MiMg

LOTS of people UN fortunately choose people on RACE ALONE! It’s time THAT STOP! And the party CAUSING it to continue is REPUBLICANS

Imagine how differently history would have played out if freed slaves had actually been given “40 acres and a Mule.”

Sharon B. Griffin

Here’s the problem! Everyone who has posted here has a piece of the issue, but no one has them all because it is so immense and multi-faceted. We can begin to conquer this formidable enemy if we unite, respect what each one of us brings to the table, and work together instead of being at cross purposes. Are not classism and racism closely akin? The same tools are employed to perpetuate each. Let’s work together! Together we stand, not as antagonists toward one another.

Karl

Ummm…. the Republican party of 1860 isn’t the same party of 2013. Same goes for the Democratic party. In fact they both pulled a 360 during the last 150 years. This would be a pretty good article if someone had studied US History… but no. Its just an ungrounded, though believable, spin of the truth.

MiMg

There isn’t ANYTHING in the article that is NOT true, so it’s NOT spin!

MattWilliamsLaw

Mr. Clifton is ignorant of history. He needs to read University of Michigan history professor Matthew Lassiter’s 2006 book on the subject, “The Silent Majority, in order to educate himself and conclude that this “southern strategy” is a myth. Lassiter wrote that Nixon won, not because of some alleged racist strategy, but rather because of a “suburban strategy that targeted middle-class voters in the metropolitan South and positioned the GOP as the centrist alternative to the racial extremism of George Wallace and the racial liberalism of Hubert Humphrey.” Attempting to frighten southern whites, which was part of this alleged “southern strategy,” was nonsense.

MiMg

No, but what IS Non Sense, how the CURRENT Republican party ALWAYS votes AGAINST Affirmative Action, Against Voting Rights, AGAINST Women’s Rights, AGAINST Gay Rights, AGAINST Hispanic Rights..

Davyd Pitts

All U.S. Citizens are equal under the law period. The sooner we get that in our heads the better. Political Parties and corporations are not protected by the Constitution.

MiMg

Good luck selling that to Repubs! They HATE gays, they HATE blacks, they HATE Hispanics (remember, “let’s ELECTRIFY the FENCES!), they HATE Women, they HATE Employee Rights, they HATE Unions, etc.

Dave

If it ever comes up when I’m having a discussion, I simply say that “Lincoln was a Liberal, the Klan consists of conservatives.”. Stops that argument dead in it’s tracks.

Michael Siever

I
once heard some Confederacy apologist say “People need to stop calling
the southern states racist. They don’t realize that even if they hadn’t
lost the Civil War and there was no 13th Amendment for them to adhere
to, they would have given up their slaves voluntarily, because
inventions like the cotton gin made the the use of slaves obsolete.”

Hey Einstein! Which came first: The chicken or the egg? Maybe it’s
because of the South getting their asses kicked in the Civil War and the
passage of the 13th Amendment that those modern inventions you speak of
got invented. Let’s see, which labor system sounds cheaper to you: a)
Buying a piece of equipment for several thousand dollars that will
eventually break down and need to be repaired or replaced within 5-10
years, or b) slaves you can keep feeding minimally and breeding to get
limitless amounts of new slaves to do the work for free? Yeah, that’s
what I thought.

Nancy Harby

Yes, they demonstrate complete & willful ignorance of political realignment.

As long as we continue to believe the myth that there are real differences between the Democrats and Republicans we are all condemned to serfdom. Follow the money, people, follow the money. George Soros backs Obama on the Left, the Koch brothers Republicans on the Right, and no matter which party is in power the Sorors’ and Koch’s of the world will high-five each other in the Wall St. banks, whilst we the sheeple are left holding the (now quite empty) bag. The destruction of this Republic has been a bi-partisan effort for years. It is the old “divide and conquer” strategy, that sadly still works all too well.

Mittymo

You’re right. We should all vote for less government. Because if politicians controlled less of our money, the prizes they could award to big businesses & powerful lobby groups would have to smaller.

MiMg

USE your HEAD! LESS government means MORE crime, MORE employ ER ABUSE, MORE DANGEROUS products being EATEN and PRODUCED, means NO Minimum Wage, AWFUL employment standards, the LIST is ENDLESS

MiMg

Wrong, which party wants to RAISE taxes on THE RICH, Big Businesses, and Large Corporations? DEMOCRATS! Therefore OUR party FAVORS helping The Poor, Blacks, Gays, Women, Voting Rights, Consumer Rights, Employee Rights, Union Rights, which are ALL things REPUBLICANS and The KOCH brother are AGAINST!

Petzl

So, yeah, it’s easy to say Lincoln was a Republican and the KKK was
largely built by Democrats, but by doing so you only prove your own
ignorance of history. You’re ignoring the fact that as Democrats
evolved to embrace equality for African Americans, Southern racists were
left looking for a new political party — and they found one that not
only embraced their racism and bigotry, it sought it out.

And the party they found was the Republican party.

Well said.

It turns my stomach when you hear historically ignorant Republicans claim Lincoln as their own, and blissfully pin the KKK on the Democrats.

Mittymo

Well, the author of this article says the KKK was largely organized, and populated by, Democrats.

But after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they changed tactics, because they could no longer suppress the black vote. From then on, they welcomed blacks to their party & won their vote by giving them entitlement crumbs & blaming their malaise on Republicans.

But Dems have to ensure blacks never improve their socioeconomic position in society. Otherwise, the Dem strategy would start to fall apart. Because if blacks ever became successful, they might become Republicans.

MiMg

If you ask CURRENT DAY White Supremists which party they favor, they will tell you HANDS DOWN – REPUBLICANS!

Mittymo

I had to travel to a blue state to find any. And they told me hands down, most favor the Dems because they found ways of suppressing minorities without them even being aware of it.

Travel to Detroit & you’ll see what I mean.

MiMg

Of course, you are wrong

Petzl

> But after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they changed tactics,

uh, in the 60s, the south goes republican. there *are* no democrats, except for the blacks, in the south. the suppressors are now republicans.

> But Dems have to ensure blacks never improve their socioeconomic position in society. Otherwise, the Dem strategy would start to fall apart. Because if blacks ever became successful, they might become Republicans.

i like hearing pathological opinions like this, because, even in my dreams, i couldn’t imagine the things republicans cook up to disparage democrats.

Mittymo

The Southern Strategy is much to do about nothing. A single Republican strategist pointed out that the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was a win-win for Republicans. First, it was the right thing to do, and secondly, a few southern
democrats might become Republicans after the Dems abandoned their apartheid policies.

But to suggest that the party of abolition & Lincoln would turn itself on its head for a handful of southern votes is ludicrous. If Republicans were that weak-minded in their resolve, the South would have won the Civil War &
African Americans would still in chains.

northierthanthou.com

It’s a basic fallacy of suppressed premises. Some folks spinning this yarn may actually believe it, but the vast majority are simply lying their asses off.

Ash Ketchum

It’s true, the Democrats used to be the party that included southern racist hicks. Back in the days of Lincoln, I would have voted Republican. But all that changed, so that by the time of the Civil Rights movement (1960s) it was Democrats fighting for equal rights, and Republicans… not as much. Parties change.

lessthantolerant

Democrats have simply created a new slavery, its called entitlement and liberalism. They have allowed the poor whites and blacks to self destruct through hedonism and by paying for some of their excesses.

Kathy

Ahaaaa! Now I know how the change was made. Thank you, Nixon. You were definitely a CRIMINAL!

Mittymo

“Essentially it was the Republican party saying, “Look, blacks are voting for Democrats so you white people need to vote for Republicans—the party that will represent whites and oppose the blacks.”

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

The quote points out that Republicans had nothing to lose by voting for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. First of all, it was the right thing to do, and secondly, some southerners whose sole reason for being a Democrat was to suppress the black vote & enact Jim Crow laws might become Republicans. It was a win-win proposition for Republicans.

Nothing in the quote (from a single strategist I previously never heard of) states or implies that Republicans would thereafter only represent whites & oppose blacks. That’s an out and out lie by a propagandist.

Would the anti-slavery, abolitionist party of John Brown & Abraham Lincoln turn itself on its head for a few southern votes? It’s laughable to suggest it would. If it were that easy to sway Republicans from their convictions, the South would’ve won the Civil War.

MiMg

The ONLY thing that REALLY matters is how do Black people vote? 98% of Blacks voted DEMOCRAT in the last 2 elections! That CLEARLY expresses WHICH party THEY feel are RACIST!

grinninglibber

Actions speak louder than any words. The GOP is racist to the core.

gailillly

You have a lot more racism in the South than you do in the North, That is a proven fact. I went to school with blacks, and Asians (and I am 69 yrs.) and we NEVER had a race problem. It is the way you bring the kids up and in the south they look down on blacks and they think that only old white men belong in Congress and that is why they keep on voting these losers into office that do nothing for them. In fact if Romney had gotten elected, he would have CUT every program the south depends upon and had us in another war. But out of their ignorance, they continued to vote repuke. and as long as they do that they are not going to get anything.

Bellalina Ballerina

You are missing a few facts… The Republican Party in the West was in fact quite racist and had many connections to the KKK. It was the same group whose wives pushed for prohibition… Gives you more of a clue about their marriages. I personally think the Civil rights movement took hold in DC because of a few outstanding politicans hwo wanted to move this antion forward.

cowcharge

This is laughable.

Mark L.

It’s a fact that Republican’ts have flipped the script! They used to be about freedom, and now they are all about being religious zealots!

Nisqually

What a load of lies and hypocritical bunk! Democrats are the ones who stir up racial animosity in order to keep control of the African American vote, they are the one making race an issue for EVERYTHING, and the three biggest racists : Sharpton, Jackson and Farrakan are Democrats. I sure wish the Mr Clifton was honest enough to tell the truth about liberal racism, not to mention their genocide of innocent babies. My guess is, like so many liberals, he has a hard time facin facts , so he makes them up instead.

ziggywiggy

thanks I needed a good laugh

Nisqually

Well, good, I’m glad that you’ve had an enjoyable giggle. Maybe it will partially make up for the fact that you can’t come up with anything that proves me wrong.

MiMg

Are you SERIOUS? it’s EASY to PROVE you wrong! I can do it with my EYES SHUT! EVERY time ANY vote comes about about HATE CRIME legislation, ALL Repubs vote AGAINST it! ANY time ANY legislation comes up about VOTER SUPPRESSION, ALL REPUBS vote FOR it! ANY time there is ANY vote for AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, ALL Repubs vote AGAINST it! ONE TWO THREE, YOU LOSE!

Nisqually

Actually……. more like YOU loose. You haven’t proven anything – except for your ability to spout hot air, which is all you’ve done so far.

MiMg

I already PROVED my point, YOU LOSE BIGOTED HOMOPHOBE RACIST

Nisqually

You’ve proved nothing, No, I take that back – your last post proves that you are a hypocrite Think I’ve won this little debate. I’ve noticed that you can always tell when a liberal is losing an argument, because they become flustered and hurl desperate, childish insults , just as you have done .

MiMg

Racists, Bigots, Homophobes, and Sexist people will NEVER win ANYTHING

Watitis

^
IGNORANT!

MiMg

You are SO blind, racist, homophobic, sexist, and elitist you can’t even see it!

Loren Petrich

So the Republican Party has made itself the party of Jefferson Davis. What does that make the Democratic Party? The party of Abraham Lincoln.

Watitis

Ha!

Jeff Johnson

I truly have come to despise the republican party and all that it stands for. At this point, I consider them to be a true, credible threat to the very sanctity of this nation, and to the peace and stability of the entire world, as well as the survival of mankind on this very planet. In short, I view today’s GOP as a global disease, devouring and destroying all that it touches.

This country is so Democrat vrs Republican. It’d sad. If you think there aren’t racist on both sides you are fooling your selves. Speaking of history, look at political appointments from both parties over the last 20 years. You’ll be surprised to find which party has more.

MiMg

this is pretty simple, as far back as 1930 the Democrats were the party for programs that HELP the poor, the low income, and the middle class. As the article says, it was only the SOUTHERN Democrats “Dixiecrats” who were the RACISTS! And the Democrat party has been fighting for Womens Rights, Gay Rights, Black Rights, Hispanic Rights, Employee Rights, Voting Rights, Consumer rights, for MANY DECADES!

Vicki Trusselli

I call them the repugs of today, the teabag hags wag the dog douche bags. they want to divide and conquer. the old white dudes who also hate women.

Watitis

^^
HATE!

Vicki Trusselli

nope the truth……analyze…….I have found out that my analyze personality of mentality is not even recognized by a lot of people…it is what it is.. peace love and misunderstanding….signed hippie chick…….vicki

Anthony J. Mitchell

I have been telling people this for years. And every Republican I ever discussed racism of the Republican party with, always brings up Lincoln and the KKK as democrats as if that is the required response racists claims.

Heather Ferris

I get a lot of people saying that CONSERVATIVES freed the slaves. Conservatives. Freed. The slaves. Jesus Christ.

Watitis

Well then Ant, you haven’t been around the block!

John MasterGuns Lewis

Once the left gets past Strom Thurmond, Miles Godwin and Jesse Helms their list of prominent Democrats who opposed civil rights stops. The left seems to not remember names like Al Gore, Sr., J. William Fulbright, Robert Byrd and Bull Connor among others who remained staunch Democrats until they died. The left forgets that it was Orval Faubus, a die-hard Democrat, who ordered the Arkansas National Guard to stop African Americans from integrating Little Rock Central High School and that it was Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, who federalized the Arkansas National Guard removing them from Faubus’ control and also sent elements of the 101st Airborne from Fort Campbell to Little Rock to ensure that African American students could enter Little Rock Central High. The left tends for forget that George Wallace, a famous Dixiecrat who never left the Democrat Party once said “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” And speaking of Truman and his decision to integrate the military, it amazes me that the left develops amnesia regarding the Dixiecrat Robert “Sheets” Byrd who Democrats always referred to as the conscience of the Senate, once referred to African Americans as “race mongrels” and vowed to never fight beside a black man.

No, all prominent Dixiecrats did not switch parties. In fact, the greater majority of them remained Democrats their entire lives.

MiMg

WRONG

Linda Parra

Throwback Democrats…..shifts in political arenas have historically been slow to occur. You are referencing people from 30+ years ago when this particular political shift was a baby.

Michael Brown

Ugh, then how did the entire South switch to Republican OVERNIGHT? Anyone reading this nonsense of a post needs to just ignore it outright because it is grounded in ridiculous notions which couldn’t be further from truth.

John MasterGuns Lewis

What part isn’t true? That part about Gore and Fulbright and Byrd remaining Democrats until the day they died? That’s fact.

Is it true that Orval Faubus, a Dixiecrat ordered the National Guard to stop African Americans from integrating Little Rock Central High school and a Republican president, DDE, sent the 101st Airborne to ensure African Americans could enter the high school? That’s also fact.

Do a little research and you will find that it is indeed fact that almost ALL of the Dixiecrats did not switch parties but remained staunch Democrats.

Then again, you probably still believe that Michael Brown was shot in the back with his hands up.

gailillly

As of right now today, the south is known for being more racist than the north and they remain this way out of their own stupidity and ignorance. Every election they vote repuke not knowing anything about the candidate. They do not take the time to educate themselves on the issues or the candidates, thus voting repuke as this is what they always have done. Just like the last election they all voted for Romney, he carried the South and he would have been the first to CUT EVERY PROGRAM THEY DEPEND UPON. But because of ignorance and yes that is what it is they continually repeat themselves over and over. All they have to do is study their candidates and find out which would do the best for them, but they don’t and I cannot feel sorry for people such as that. the repuke party is NOT for poor people or people of color but just keep on voting them in and this is what you get in return, nothing for you 0r your state. All you have to do is take a little time and learn and until you do that you will always be seen as Ignorant and not very bright.

Watitis

^
Low info voter dedicated to partisan blindness!

Hersh

Well written!!!!

dlb

And now they’re heading to the Tea Party.

Albert8184

Most all of the Dixiecrats went back to the Democrat party. And that’s only one hole in this guy’s “Story”. But, I gotta hand it to him. He wrote a real amusing piece of comic fiction. I grew up in the South, and can tell you that most of the most obvious racists I knew even in the Carter years were Democrats.

I bring this up so many times to conservatives, Tea Party people etc. and they say we made it up 🙂 They reject it and say I am a product of my liberal, indoctrinated education 😀

Karen Vaughn-Davis

People naturally Fear that which is different, they fear the unknown..this generates more discourse than anything else. Superstitions, paranoia and greed cause more hatred between the races than anything else. It’s sad that people can not realize, That We all have a Purpose and Reason for being here. If God were Predjudice None of us would be here..An Education is a valuable thing to waste. Everyone needs to go on to College and be exposed to the World, travel outside of the United States and see what the rest of the World is like…WE are all one, yet we hurt each other and we do it again..

What this fiasco of a “fact sheet” fails to mention, is that
the SCLC long resisted the spouting of the acidic Malcolm X. Until 1967, Dr.
King managed to gain national attention and notoriety with “civil
disobedience”.

In November 1967, Dr. King and X became more so aligned… Dr.
King suggested that a new front on the war against racial injustice consider
expanding the campaign to include all the poor, of which the black community was substantially victims. He said that to do this, “a nationalization of all vital industry would wipe out class and end poverty.

In 1968, under Lyndon Johnson began an FBI investigation of
SCLC in a frightened attempt to quell a larger rebellion. Yes our illustrious
Lyndon Johnson (war on poverty) was an instrument that dangled that carrot which has only mollified the issue.

Ironically, Allen’s assertion that the Southern Strategy (1970) was encouraging the “white” vote is ludicrous. After 120 years of
Dixie-crat racism, Southern Strategy brought about a C-change of political
awareness. In 2008, and 2012, most of those formerly “racist Dixie crat
states gave us our first African American President… Conversely Supreme Court Justice was correct to declare the VRA, unconstitutional until the congress re-visits Section 4 of VRA under the parameters of pre-clearance.

Allen is off base here, and many of us suspect that another
attempt at nationalization is your goal, and less about racial equality~

Magsmoore

Very good article. It told me something I did not know before (quote of Nixon). Too bad your other readers spiral into that old argument about race. White trailer trash vs black ghetto inhabitants, etc. blah, blah. It’s the Koch brothers and their ilk who stoke these arguments. Keep fighting, minions, while we pick your pockets. As long as nothing changes, the super rich get richer. All they have to do is stop government from working for the interests of the middle class. The rich will always be able to get an abortion. They will always get proper medical care. Somebody will always be happy to work for $7/hour. If we allow ourselves to be distracted, they will continue to deceive us.

Joseph Sinkovic

Lets tell it like it is. You people down south started another civil war only without bullets. You lost the fist civil war and you’ll lose this one. Why? Because your stupid. and lazy. You whites down south are the next batch of slaves for the 1%. The Negro ain’t going back to the garbage they escaped a 150 yrs. ago. You Whites are. You all better get the repubs out of office or you’ll be pickin cotton and peanuts.

Arkansas History fact, Democrats were slave owners Lincoln was a Republican not a Democrat. Once the Democrats lost the battle at Jenkins Ferry and then at Little Rock they began to realize that if they didn’t change their attitude the would part of a history that would be forgotten. So like they always do, they turned coat and went to the winning side. Unfortunately the nasty racist democrats decided to become republican. I am Republican but not because I am racist, just because of the choices I have been given. If we would have had a better choice than Al Gore I would not have voted for Bush.

Tea Kerissa Mitchell

If Nixon really had a Southern Stragedy how come it didn’t work in 1976 in the following election Carter vs Ford? … because it’s nonsense! …The Dixiecrats opposed civil rights in 60’s to protect the Southern Trade Unionists Jobs and thats a fact! Same today with Democrat Progressives opposing ‘school choice’ ‘the new segregation’ in favor of keeping ‘disadvantaged kids’ in failing public schools & under the union thumb!

The left don’t want racial harmony..

Democrat policies are based on the racial platform of the “Soft Bigotry of Low Expectation” their main message is you’re “not good enough” you need us and that’s how they control “like modern day slaves” a whole demographic

Nick Wride

The ’76 election went to Carter because the majority of the American people were sick and tired of the criminality of the Republican Party.

Ken Leibold

Where did all the racist Southern Democrats go? In 1968 they all went to the Republican party as a result of LBJ getting the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed…..that is the smoking gun. No way of getting around that fact!

Sparky

It is a matter of historical record that more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This article is about race-baiting subterfuge.

Ron

I understand the history and I’m not debating the past. However, what is the Republican party doing today that is racist against Blacks?

Johnny Vega

Its basically a North South thing. The North has always been more liberal and the South conservative.

It’s funny how everyone loves to call the republicans the party of racism (and there is some truth to that) but let the democrats off the hook. Lets review the facts:
Until he died in 2010, the senior ranking Democrat in the Senate was Bob Byrd, who was a recruiter for the KKK.
Chris Dodd told reporters that Byrd would have been on the right side of the Civil War (I must have missed the history lesson on the KKK being a pro-minority organization).
Harry Reid complemented our president by stating that he doesn’t talk with a “negro dialect” (to translate, it means he doesnt talk like an ignorant minority).
Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff has been accused of being a racist by the not so republican Chicago Teacher’s Union.

Its fine that the republicans are held to task for their racially-related actions, but don’t let the racist democrats off the hook

BkDodge42

All you have to do is check the actual facts and not some made up facts. The Robert Byrds, and the Bull Connors continued to be elected in the South under the Democratic Party. Most of the Congressmen and Senators from the South continued to be elected as Democrats. The State legislatures continued to be under Democratic control for years after the so called southern strategy. Your theory only works for those who follow along blindly and never think for themselves.

Bae

The parties keep their name but the ideology changes with time. The republicans of Lincoln’s time are the democrats of today. Even Nixon was more like a democrat by today’s standards.

Grand1

The writer conveniently leaves our Preisdent Lyndon B, Johnson of Texas who signed the Civil Rights Act and Voter Rights Act and, in doing so, ended the Democratic Party in the U.S. South.

top_tier

This article has it all wrong. In fact, most of the drivel found in the predominately left leaning media about the Southern Strategy is politically sculpted and ignores many facts. The most glaring is racists did not move to the GOP. 93% of the Dixiecrats never left the Democratic party. It’s simple to prove this fact by simply looking up what party they were in when they retired from politics. Goldwater was in fact very much for civil rights, he voted against some of the legislation not because of his stance on civil rights but because of the powers some of the legislation took from states, his beef was about the construct of the laws, he was a great proponent on civil rights however. Just look it up.

Nixon did try to court more white voters but it wasn’t based on racism in his heart or at its core, it was based on political tactic, the so called Southern Strategy was based on some of his short term ideas, it did not become the GOP platform. Nixon in fact was acknowledged by MLK himself for his work on civil rights, and he was responsible for over 70% of school desegregation during his administration. If there was one thing Nixon was strong at ironically, it was civil rights

This is all true and is one of the main reasons I have always voted for Democrats. It’s also true that the prosecutors and Governor in the obscene debacle of racism and injustice that came out of Ferguson are Democrats. The Democratic party needs to make it quite clear that they are NOT funding overt racism themselves. Do the folks in DC not understand how poorly this sort of corruption, nepotism and OBVIOUS racism reflects on the entire party? I find myself wondering how many racist prosecutors we have been funding and voting for. I expect we will find out over the course of the next two years.

If you have any common sense you can see the truth, they just tried to take Indian land for thier greed. When the tribes spoke out about it, one republican senator made the comment that they should be put in detention camps. I was appalled by this, can you say Nazi. And then to find that another spoke at a white supremacy gathering, there is your proof. There is nothing good that comes from the republican party.

at the end of the day Abraham Lincoln didn’t do shit for the poor black people in America,yes Abraham Lincoln was a racist and lets keep it real we are not free.my race of blk people still have slaves mentality and the sad part they don’t know it!!